.^ 



DISCUSSIONS IN EDUCATION 



.h^- 



BY 



FRANCIS A. WALKER, PH.D., LLD. 

Late President Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Author of " Political Economy," " The Wages Question," 

" Money," etc. 



EDITED BY 

JAMES PHINNEY MUNROE 




NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1899 






23525 

Copyright, 1698, 

BY 

HENRY HOLT & CO. 
TWO COPIES REC :iVED- 




i( JAN 19 18= 



'T />f r. 



THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, 
RAHWAY, N. J. 



\'b^% 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 

The collection into a volume of the following ad- 
dresses and papers relating to education is in accordance 
witk the expressed intention of the late President 
Walker, That the work should be done by an editor 
instead of by the author is but another of the countless 
losses suffered through his untimely death. 

Although, while at Yale University, he had rendered 
admirable service to the schools both of the State of 
Connecticut and of the city of JSTew Haven, the fact 
that no paper dealing with the subject appeared earlier 
than 1884, when General Walker was in middle life, 
indicates that questions of education had not engaged his 
attention, to the point of a formal discussion of them, 
until after he assumed the Presidency of the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology, in 1881. Indeed, so 
much deeper had been his study of other social ques- 
tions, that, while exhibiting the deepest interest in mat- 
ters relating to education, he disclaimed any special or 
technical knowledge concerning them. That, however, 
he was an educator in the highest and best sense of this 
much-abused term is amply shown by his brilliant and 
altogether satisfactory administration, during the last 
fifteen years of his life, of the Institute of Technology, 
and by his admirable treatment of the special topics in 
education with which this volume deals. 

Bred in one of what he himself calls the " old-fash- 



IV EDITOR'S PREFACE. 

ioned " college courses, a teacher, in youth, of Latin 
and Greek, he found himself, nevertheless, in full sym- 
pathy with that newer scheme of higher education in 
which the pure and applied sciences take an equal 
position, as agents of culture, with that accorded for so 
many centuries to the Classics alone. An ardent, effec- 
tive, and yet restrained champion of this more modem 
university training, he was, no less, an advocate of 
needed reforms in elementary and secondary teaching, 
doing notable work, to use Dr. Harris's apt phrase, in 
the " pathology of education." 

The papers, arranged in such sequence as was pos- 
sible, fall into four main groups: Technological Educa- 
tion; Manual Education; the Teaching of Arithmetic; 
and various College Problems. The Valedictory which^ 
fortunately preserved, closes the volume carries its own 
reason for insertion. 

With such omissions as are indicated and with such 
minor alterations as, it is believed, the author would 
himself have made, the papers appear as originally 
printed or delivered. Parts of other addresses which, 
because of repetition, could not be presented in full have 
been inserted as footnotes. It is hoped that, by this 
means, nothing of permanent value relating to educa- 
tion uttered and preserved by President Walker has 
failed of inclusion. 

The thanks of the editor are due to the several pub- 
lishers and officers of associations for their courteous per- 
mission to reprint many of the papers. 
Boston, September, 1898. 



CONTENTS 

^ -„ PAGE 

Technological Education : 

Immediate Problems in Technological Education, . . 3 
The Eise and Importance of Applied Science in American 

Education, 19 

The Technical School and the University, ... 39 
The Relation of Professional and Technical to General 

Education 55 

Technological and Technical Education 81 

The Problem of "English "in Schools of Technology, . Ill 

Manual Education : 

Industrial Education 135 

A Plea for Industrial Education in the Public Schools, 153 
Manual Education in Urban Communities, . .175 
The Relation of Manual Training to Certain Mental 

Defects, 197 

The Teaching op Arithmetic : 

Arithmetic in the Primary and Grammar Schools, . . 209 

Arithmetic in the Boston Schools, 235 

College Problems : 

College Athletics, 259 

The Study of Statistics in Colleges and Technical Schools, 289 

Normal Training in Women's Colleges 305 

The Secondary Schools and Higher Education, . . 823 

A Valedictory, . . 333 

Index 337 



TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION 



IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS IN 

TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION 
1893 



Opening Address as Chairman op the Department 
OF Technological Instruction at the International 
Congress of Education, July 20, 1893. From thb 
Addresses and Proceedings of the International 
Congress of Education, Chicago, 1893. 



The questions in relation to technological edu- 
cation suggested as of pressing importance in 
this address are, in the main, dealt with at 
greater length in subsequent papers. 



DISCUSSIONS IN EDUCATION 



IMMEDIATE PKOBLEMS IN TECHNOLOGICAL 
EDUCATION. 

This, so far as I am aware, is the first general confer- 
ence ever called to discuss the whole subject of techno- 
logical education. Delegates from the " Colleges of 
Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts " established in the 
United States under the act of 1862 have for some 
years met in annual convention to consider matters of 
common interest; but in these conventions agriculture 
has been so far the predominant topic as to throw other 
departments of instruction into the shade. 

It was well that this present conference should be 
called. It was high time that the friends of technologi- 
cal education should assemble, to compare their experi- 
ences, to inquire what is lacking or what has been ill 
done in the remarkable development that has taken place 
during the last twenty-five years, and to take counsel 
together regarding the means for completing, for per- 
fecting, for strengthening tliis system of public instruc- 
tion. The representatives of the classical culture long 
ago recognized the importance of mutual conference, 
and many and earnest have been the deliberations and 
debates in which delegates from colleges and universi- 



4 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

ties liave sought to find out the way by which they might 
do greater good to the community and to the world, in 
their devoted and self-sacrificing exertions on behalf of 
education. Technological instruction, from its new- 
ness, from the sporadic character of the enterprises with 
which it has been connected, from the inherent gravity 
and complexity of its problems, has even greater need 
of consultation and conference among its teachers and 
its friends. 

It is said that nearly or quite one hundred institutions, 
in America alone, are now offering instruction in the 
applications of the sciences to the useful arts. In Great 
Britain, if my information is correct, the number of 
science schools and technical colleges is not much 
smaller. With but a few exceptions, this vast body of 
educational agencies represents the developments of 
only a quarter of a century. Some of these schools have 
been founded under the protection and patronage of 
great universities ; others have been the outcome of inde- 
pendent effort. Some have sought to cover the whole 
ground of technological instruction; others have con- 
fined themselves to comparatively limited fields. Some 
have from the first achieved a decided success; others 
are still struggling with poverty of means, with embar- 
rassments due perhaps to a false start, or with the inher- 
ent difficulties of their respective problems. Surely, in 
such a situation, it is eminently wise that the represent- 
atives of technological education should assemble in gen- 
eral convention, to deliberate upon the means of 



PROBLEMS IN TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 5 

advancing their common object; to inquire what re- 
strictions, if any, should be placed around the field of 
their activity; to learn, each from others, what measures 
may be taken to promote the efficiency with which these 
schools shall prepare their pupils for the severe trials of 
professional practice; and, last of all and most of all, to 
search deeply into the question how technical instruc- 
tion and training may be made truly educational, in the 
largest and best sense of that word, so that the schools 
shall render the greatest possible service, not merely to 
industry and the arts, but also to character and citizen- 
ship, to mind and manhood. 

So strongly has the importance of this subject, in view 
of the recent very remarkable extension of the class of 
schools referred to, pressed upon those who have framed 
the plans for this general conference of education, that 
it has been decided to allot three morning sessions to the 
subject of technological education. Of these, the first, 
the present session, has been assigned to the discussion of 
the question: how far the technological instruction of 
to-day answers its primary requirement, the preparation 
of young men to enter upon the practice of the scientific 
professions; what failures or deficiencies have been dis- 
covered as the result of an experience wide if not long; 
what are the causes of any failures or deficiencies which 
may be found to exist; and what measures should be 
taken to complete and perfect these schools upon their 
purely professional side. The two remaining sessions 
are to be devoted to the consideration of the actual and 



6 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

the possible work of technical schools as instruments of 
general education. For the purposes of the proposed 
discussion regarding technical education, the present 
occasion is most felicitous, not merely in the presence 
of so large a number of distinguished educators, at- 
tracted hither by the wonders and the glories of the 
Columbian Exposition; not merely in the inspiration 
afforded by this great object-lesson of industrial art, the 
greatest which has ever been devised by the ingenuity 
of mauj ordered and arranged by his taste and skill, and 
executed by his enterprise and energy; but also, and per- 
haps even most of all, by the presence here, in the courts 
of the department of liberal arts, of the large and com- 
prehensive exhibits made by the technical schools of our 
own and foreign lands. All that may be said here must 
be taken in connection with the work of students, the 
schemes of courses, the apparatus of instruction, shown 
in the galleries of the main building of the Exposition. 
Whether in their professional or their educational 
aspects, these exhibits should be deeply and carefully 
studied by every educator who would form an intelli- 
gent and candid opinion as to what the schools of this 
class are really doing. 

In the preparation of the programme for these ses- 
sions, it has not been sought to secure a series of elabo- 
rate and exhaustive papers which should occupy the time 
available for the consideration of the topics proposed. 
It has been the wish of the management that the papers 
read should be comparatively brief theses, presenting 



PROBLEMS IN TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 1 

the several topics in a suggestive rather than in a com- 
prehensive manner, with a view to invite oral discussion 
and to promote the face-to-face comparison of indi- 
vidual views and experiences. 

In such a conference as this, the most that is to be ex- 
pected of the presiding officer is to arrange and provide 
from day to day for the presence and the participation 
of the largest number of those whose positions and serv- 
ices in the cause of education, technical or general, 
qualify them to add to the interest and to the value of 
the discussion. Yet, in this first conference on the sub- 
ject of technological education, I cannot forbear to avail 
myself of my privilege as chairman to mention certain 
questions which press for consideration in connection 
with this department of instruction. 

First: How far those who control and conduct schools 
of technology are bound to qualify and modify their 
courses of instruction with reference to the fact that 
their students are, as a rule, not the graduates of col- 
leges, and that the training received in these schools, 
therefore, must be the only training, within the college 
grade both as to age and as to mental development, 
which these students are to enjoy before entering upon 
the serious duties of life. This fact was clearly not in 
contemplation by those who first founded our schools of 
technology, if, indeed, it is not in flat contradiction of 
what they then anticipated. It seems plain from Mr. 
Abbott Lawrence's deed of gift to Harvard College, for 
the endowment of the scientific school which bears his 



8 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

name, that it was his expectation that the students would 
be largely college graduates; yet, in the latest catalogue 
of that school which I have seen, among one hundred 
and eighty-one students only two are graduates of col- 
leges, only one a graduate of a classical college. At the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology the number of 
college graduates ranges between forty and fifty. 
These students, therefore, form only between four and 
five per cent, of the total membership of the school. A 
slightly larger proportion, I believe, is maintained at 
the Sheffield School at New Haven. In view of this 
development of schools of technology, we are bound to 
inquire whether their curriculum should not be more or 
less qualified and modified to meet the fact that their 
pupils are to receive no further and no other college 
training. 

The second question I would venture to suggest is: 
how far the judgment of practitioners of technical pro- 
fessions should conclude or should influence that of the 
teachers and administrators of technical schools. Prob- 
ably the first thought in any man's mind would be to 
the effect that the best advice in regard to technical edu- 
cation would come from those engaged in the practice of 
the corresponding scientific professions. Yet it appears 
to me that this is a subject which should be carefully 
discussed, and that the first thought on the pre- 
sentation of the question is not as a matter of course 
correct. 

Let us make the issue a little more specific. Engi- 



PROBLEMS IN TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 9 

neering education, for example — is it primarily and 
principally an engineering or an educational problem? 
Is the engineer who is not and has never been a teacher 
necessarily a better judge than a teacher who has never 
been an engineer? Of course it is not intended here to 
intimate that the opinions of practicing engineers regard- 
ing engineering education may not be of great value; 
that, in any case, they are not evidence which should be 
carefully considered by those who are to judge of any 
question which concerns engineering education. But 
who is to be the judge — the engineer or the educator? 
Whatever the professional standing of any engineer, are 
his views conclusive upon the faculty of an engineering 
school ? 

My own opinion is that engineering education is pri- 
marily and principally an educational and not an engi- 
neering problem; and that the judgment of a strong and 
experienced teacher who has studied this problem is 
more likely to be right than that of any engineer with- 
out experience as a teacher, however eminent he may be 
in his profession. 

A third question of importance in the development 
of technical education is whether or not a substantial 
connection with a university constitutes an advantage. 
Much might be said on both sides of this question. Ad- 
mirable examples are offered us of technical schools 
under the protection and patronage of great universi- 
ties, and of detached technical schools which have 
steadily and successfully pursued their way, alike with- 



10 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

out hindrance and without help from a corporation or 
a faculty having other interests as well as their own in 
charge. Without undertaking to discuss this question 
in full, I will venture to make two remarks which it 
seems to me should be considered at the very outset of 
such a discussion. 

ISTo advantage which a technical school can derive 
from association with a university, through the ability, 
experience, and comprehensive views of the corporation 
of such a body, will compensate for any lack of moral 
and intellectual sympathy with the purposes of technical 
education, any lack of respect for the studies and exer- 
cises of the technical school. Unless the members of 
the corporation of a university thoroughly believe in 
technical education, unless they are devoted to its ob- 
jects, unless they entertain a hearty and unaffected re- 
spect for the kind of man who is to teach and the kind 
of man who is to receive the teaching, a technical school 
will derive only damage from such an association. 
Again, no advantage which the students of a technical 
school might conceivably derive from the large and 
varied endowment and equipment of a great university, 
and from companionship with bodies of students in other 
pursuits than their own, will compensate for the loss of 
scholarly impulse and the injury to self-respect which 
will inevitably be sustained, unless the general spirit of 
the university be high, manly, and devoid of snobbish- 
ness. If the technical students, through association 
with a university, are to come habitually in contact with 



PROBLEMS IN TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 11 

young men who have not seriously taken up the work of 
their lives, who regard college merely as a place in which 
to have a good time or to indulge in sport or dissipation, 
who have no settled purpose and no manly aims, and 
especially if the technical students are to come habitu- 
ally in contact with young men who regard labor as 
degrading, who look upon the rough clothes and the 
stained fingers of the laboratory and the workshop as 
badges of inferiority in character or in social standing, 
then a technical school will derive harm, and only harm, 
from such an association. 

A fourth question which needs to be very carefully 
considered by all friends of technological education is 
how far immediate professional success is to be weighed 
against ultimate professional success. It is, of course, 
an immense advantage to the pupils of technical schools, 
and to their parents and friends, that the young gradu- 
ate should be able at once to earn his livelihood, even if 
it be an humble one. In this day, when social necessi- 
ties are so grinding, and when it is so hard to start a son 
in life, that advantage is not to be despised or neglected. 
Yet there is always a wide field of choice open to those 
who control technical schools as to the degree in which 
they will offer to their pupils studies and exercises the 
value of which will be most fully realized in the first 
few years after gi-aduation, or studies and exercises 
whose value will be increasingly felt through the whole 
course of their professional career, and which will 
qualify them, in larger and ever larger measure, for 



12 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

positions of responsibility and trust with advancing 
years. It would be strange, indeed, if in the infancy 
of technological education many mistakes had not been 
made in this matter, predominantly on the side of 
assigning too much value to studies and exercises of 
immediate utility. I cannot but believe that with 
larger experience, and with more of conference among 
those who administer technological education, there will 
be a decided movement in the direction of subordinating 
the acquisition of the knacks of a trade and mere tech- 
nical devices to the study of principles; and that, even 
in the applications of principles, valuable and invaluable 
as these are, reference will be had rather to their effect 
in giving a greater mastery of the principles themselves, 
than to their immediate utility in professional practice. 
!N"ay, more, I confidently believe that, even in the study 
of scientific principles, a continually increasing regard 
will be paid to their influence in expanding the mind, 
enlarging the views, elevating the aims, and strength- 
ening the character of the pupil. 

A fifth question presenting itself to those administer- 
ing technological education is in regard to the expedi- 
ency of introducing some so-called liberal studies into 
all technical courses. I have already adverted to the 
fact that the great majority of students of technology 
are not graduates of colleges. But aside from this, and 
even although all such students were college graduates, 
it would still fairly be a question whether some degree 
of philosophical study, especially in history and political 



PROBLEMS IN TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 13 

economy, should not mingle day by day with the scien- 
tific studies and exercises which form the primary sub- 
jects of instruction and training in a technical school. 
For myself, I am much disposed to believe that that 
technical school will best discharge its duty to its pupils 
and to the state which gives to its students, in addition 
to those studies and exercises which will make them 
exact and strong, some measure, also, of those studies 
and exercises which will tend to make them, at the same 
time, broad and fine. 

The last question which I would suggest has regard to 
the desirability and feasibility of securing uniform r^ 
quirements for admission to schools of technology. The 
classical colleges within I^ew England, and perhaps over 
a 'v\ader region, have long been working toward the end 
of common rules and conditions as to entrance; and 
their efforts have met with a high degree of success, not 
only in a loyal support, by all the colleges, of the 
scheme of examinations adopted, but also in the mani- 
fest and marked improvement of the preparatory schools 
most largely contributing to their membership. It is 
fairly a question whether the time has not come for 
associated action in the same direction by the schools of 
technology, 

I will protract these remarks only by referring to a 
single subject, and that is the spirit in which it behooves 
the representatives of technological education to meet 
and to answer the accusation of certain critics that the 
technical applications of science are incompatible with 



14 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

that disinterestedness which it is said, and truly said, is 
essential to the highest results in education. Those 
who indulge in flings regarding the lack of disinterested- 
ness in technological education are generally the persons 
who have withstood at every step the introduction of 
chemistry, physics, and natural history as substitutes for 
the older studies of the college curriculum. Beaten at 
all points in their futile opposition to the spirit of the 
times, and overwhelmed by the abundant testimony 
offered as to the effects of science-study in making young 
men as modest, loyal, fine, and pure as the best products 
of the classical culture, and withal more exact, resolute, 
and strong, these gentlemen are making their last stand 
against the movement of the age by denouncing the 
technical applications of science as interested and mer- 
cenary, and therefore as unsuited to be the means of 
promoting true scholarship. They are compelled to ad- 
mit that the pursuit of technology is useful to the com- 
munity in a degree which makes it not less than abso- 
lutely necessary for hundreds and thousands of young 
men to be trained in science and in the applications of 
science to the useful arts; but they are unwilling that 
these young men should be considered as scholars in the 
same sense and of the same degree of merit as graduates 
of schools whose studies and exercises are not subject to 
the imputation of being of any direct or immediate use. 
It would please those gentlemen more if, while the col- 
lege graduate receives his scholarship medal of pure 
gold, the graduate of the school of technology should 



PROBLEMS IN TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 15 

liave his testimonial stamped upon a circlet of some baser 
metal. 

Now, it seems to me, we are bound to resent and to 
repel this imputation, without tenns and without cere- 
mony. We assert that the disinterestedness of study 
does not depend upon the immediate usefulness or use- 
lessness of the subject-matter, but upon the spirit with 
which the student takes up and pursues his work. If 
there be zeal in investigation, if there be delight in dis- 
covery, if there be fidelity to the truth as it is discerned, 
nothing more can be asked by the educator of highest 
aims. A young man who is earnestly laboring to pre- 
pare himself for an honorable and beneficent career in 
life may be disinterested in every sense in which that 
term can be used with approbation. Our critics have 
been driven to a pretty pass, indeed, when the only 
ground upon which they can make a stand is the prac- 
tical usefulness of technical studies. These gentlemen 
appear to have the same unnecessary fear of fruit which 
Macaulay, in one of his famous essays,^ attributes, prob- 
ably with some exaggeration, as his custom was, to the 
old philosophers. Their concern is needless. So long 
as the students of technology bear themselves with the 
same earnestness and scholarly devotion which has char- 
acterized them as a body since this system of instruction 
was inaugurated, the cause of education will suffer no 
harm. There is a wonderful virtue in science to make 
and to keep its disciples truthful and faithful; and at no 
* On Lord Bacon. — Ed. 



16 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

distant time it will be fully recognized by all teachers 
that the technical applications of science directly add to 
the value of science-study by giving a more direct object 
to effort, and by heightening the pleasure which the 
pupil feels at each step of his scholarly progress. 



THE RISE AND IMPORTANCE OF 
APPLIED SCIENCE IN AMERICAN 
EDUCATION 

1891 



Address at the Convocation of the T'nivhrsity 
OP THE State of New Yokk, Albany, July 9, 1891. 



Published in the Technology Quarterly, Decem- 
ber, 1891, under the title " The Place of Scien- 
tific and Technical Schools in American Edu- 
cation." 



THE EISE AND IMPORTANCE OF APPLIED 
SCIENCE IN AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

Among the vast changes in the spirit and life of our 
country, in the arts, the industries, the ideas, the aspira- 
tions, of the American people, which were brought 
about by, or which coincided with, the great struggle 
from 1861 to 1865, none is more remarkable than the 
rapid development of schools of applied science and 
technology. It is no part of my duty to name even the 
most important of these, or to attempt to divide among 
them the honor of what they have, as a whole, achieved. 
I shall confine myself to accounting, as far as I may, for 
the rapidity with which these schools have spread over 
the land, and to estimating their place in our educational 
system. 

The nearest and easiest thing to say regarding the 
growth of scientific and technical schools, since the for- 
tunate conclusion of the Civil War, is that the industrial 
development of the country had reached the point where 
it had become necessary that the enterprises into which 
our labor and capital were to be put should be organized 
and directed with much more of skill and scientific 
knowledge than had been applied to our earlier efforts 
at manufactures and transportation; and so in the full- 
ness of time, scientific and technical schools came. In 



20 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

this view there is much truth. The vaster enterprises of 
these later days, the ever increasing possibilities of 
modern commerce and industry, the intensifying se- 
verity of competition due to quickened communication, 
fast mails, cheap freights, and ocean cables, had indeed 
created an urgent want for greater technical skill and 
for more highly trained intelligence. The old wasteful 
Avays of dealing with materials, the rule-of-thunib 
methods of construction, the haphazard administration, 
characteristic of our earlier industrial effoi'ts, could not 
have been continued without greatly retarding the 
national development and without irreparable loss in the 
result. But, at the time spoken of, this want had not 
become one of which our people were generally con- 
scious; much less had it created a demand for such in- 
stitutions sufficient of itself to bring them into existence. 
The establishment of scientific and technical schools in 
the United States was to constitute a striking instance of 
the principle that, in some things, supply must create 
demand. 

[After development of this principle upon lines simi- 
lar to those followed in the address on Technological and 
Technical Education (see p. 96) the address proceeds.] 

But no one who thoroughly believes in the mission of 
schools of this class can be content merely to assert that 
the full time had come in the economic evolution of the 
nation when such schools were imperatively needed for 
the promotion of our industries, and that the institutions 
thus called into being have done this, their primary 



RISE AND IMPORTANCE OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 21 

work, with triumphant success. We go far beyond this, 
and assert for these schools that they have come to form 
a most important part of the proper educational system 
of the country, and that they are to-day doing a work in 
the intellectual development of our people which is not 
surpassed, if indeed it be equaled, by that of the clas- 
sical colleges. No statement less broad and strong than 
this would begin to do justice to the view we take of 
what these schools are now doing, and are in an increas- 
ing measure to do, for the manhood and citizenship of 
the country. "We believe that in the schools of applied 
science and technology as they are carried on to-day in 
the United States, involving the thorough and most 
scholarly study of principles directed immediately upon 
useful arts, and rising, in their higher grades, into origi- 
nal investigation and research, is to be found almost the 
perfection of education for young men. Too long have 
we submitted to be considered as furnishing something 
which is, indeed, more immediately and practically 
useful than a so-called liberal education, but which is, 
after all, less noble and fine. Too long have our schools 
of applied science and technology been popularly re- 
garded as affording an inferior substitute for classical 
colleges to those who could not afford to go to college, 
then take a course in a medical or law school, and then 
wait for professional practice. Too long have the grad- 
uates of such schools been spoken of as though they had 
acquired the arts of livelihood at some sacrifice of men- 
tal development, intellectual culture, and grace of life. 



22 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

For me, if I did not believe that the graduates of the 
institution over which I have the honor to preside were 
as well educated men, in all which the term " educated 
man " implies, as the average graduate of the ordinary 
college, I would not consent to hold my position for an- 
other day. It is true that something of form and style 
may be sacrificed in the earnest, direct, and laborious 
endeavors of the student of science; but that all the 
essentials of intellect and character are one whit less 
fully or less happily achieved through such a course of 
study, let no man connected with such an institution for 
a moment concede ! 

That mind and manhood alike are served in a pre- 
eminent degree by the systematic study of chemistry, 
physics, and natural history, has passed beyond dispute. 
The haste with which the colleges themselves are throw- 
ing over many of their traditional subjects to make 
room for these comparatively new studies, shows how 
general has become the appreciation of the virtue of 
these, when combined with laboratory methods, as means 
of intellectual and moral training. 

I have spoken of the characteristic studies of these 
schools as the best of all available means of both moral 
and intellectual training. I believe this claim to be 
none too broad. 

First, the sincerity of purpose and the intellectual 
honesty which are bred in the laboratory of chemistry 
and physics stand in strong contrast with the dangerous 
tendencies to plausibility, sophistry, casuistry, and self- 



RISE AND IMPORTANCE OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 23 

delusion whicli so insidiously beset tlie pursuit of meta- 
physics, dialectics, and rhetoric, according to the tradi- 
tions of the schools. Much of the training given in col- 
lege in my boyhood was, it is not too much to say, 
directed straight upon the arts which go to make the 
worse appear the better reason. It was always an 
added feather in the cap of the young disputant that he 
had won a debate in a cause in which he did not believe. 
Surely, in these more enlightened days, it is not needful 
to say that this is perilous practice, if, indeed, it is not 
always and necessarily pernicious. Even where the 
element of purposed and boasted self-stultification was 
absent, there was a dangerous and mischievous exalta- 
tion of the form above the substance of the student's 
work, which made it better to be brilliant than to be 
sound. 

Contrast with this the moral and intellectual influence 
of the studies and exercises we are considering. The 
student of chemistry or physics would scarcely know 
how to defend a thesis which he did not himself believe. 
In that dangerous art he has had no practice. The 
only success he has hoped for has been to be right. The 
only failure he has had to fear was to be wrong. To be 
brilliant in error only heightened the failure, making it 
the more conspicuous and ludicrous. How wholesome 
to the mind and heart of the pupil is such a regimen ! 

Again, in addition to the graces of sincerity and intel- 
lectual honesty, which are the proper traits of physical 
and natural science, there is great virtue, as training for 



24 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

practical work in life, of whatever kind, in whatever 
sphere, in that objective study of concrete things which 
so largely makes up the curriculum of the schools we 
are considering. 

Still another advantage which we claim for the char- 
acteristic studies of the new schools is that, in a very 
large degree, they dispense with the system of examina- 
tions which has become the curse of modern education. 
The recent remarkable outburst in England, from edu- 
cators of every name and class, against that system, jus- 
tifies the strong terms I have used. It is admitted on 
all sides to be a problem of the greatest difficulty so to 
adjust their scheme that examinations shall not largely 
neutralize the good effects of sincere and straightforward 
study. 

So far has cramming been carried in English univer- 
sities, and even in our own colleges, that examinations 
have largely ceased to test the scholar's attainments, 
much less his real proficiency in his studies. Students 
who have a marked facility in this sort of thing acquire, 
in time, the faculty of passing creditable examinations 
upon matters of which they know almost absolutely 
nothing. By steadily cramming for a few days and 
nights, under artful coaches, who know the professors' 
weaknesses and fads, a young man exceptionally expert 
can " get up " a subject,^ of which he would be troubled, 

' I would not disparage the importance, as a professional accom- 
plishment, of the ability to " get up" a subject in a very short time 
under high pressure. A lawyer has often occasion to do this very 
thing. But this is a professional accomplishment, and should be 



RISE AND IMPORTANCE OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 25 

the morning after examination, to give an intelligible 
account. There develops a special organ — the exami- 
nation organ — which is as specific as the water-sacks at- 
tached to the stomach of a camel and intended only to 
carry a certain amount of refreshment over a very dry 
place for a very short time. Indeed, the comparison 
fails to do justice to its subject. The examination organ 
is at once as specific and as external as the pouch of a 
kangaroo. 

From this serious difficulty schools of applied science 
and technology are, by the very nature of the case, 
largely freed. Indeed, the inapplicability of the scheme 
of examinations to the studies we are considering has 
even been made an argument against their introduction 
into universities. Professor Parsons Cooke, in address- 
ing recently a body of students at Harvard, said: 
^' When advocating in our mother university of Cam- 
bridge, in Old England, the claims of scientific culture, 
I was pushed with an argument which had very great 
weight with the eminent English scholars present, and 
which, you will be surprised to learn, was regarded as 
fatal to the success of the natural science triposes then 
under debate. The argument was, that the experi- 
mental sciences could not be made the subjects of com- 
petitive examinations." 

acquired as such. The period of professional study is not too late 
for the acquirement of this faculty. It can even be acquired later 
still, in the course of professional work. Such practice, however, in 
my judgment, forms no part of general education and training, and 
is only vicious and mischievous in the culture stage. 



26 TECUNOLOQICAL EDUCATION. 

It is not true that chemistry and physics cannot be 
made the subject of examinations after their hind; but 
it is true that, under competent teachers of these sciences, 
examinations have far less of the character of a cram, 
and far more of the character of a test of ability to do 
work. Moreover, in such a scheme of instruction, as a 
whole, examinations perform a much less important 
part, while the daily and weekly exercises in the labora- 
tory become continually of more and more account as a 
means of ascertaining the scholar's real progress. In 
this the schools of applied science and technology com- 
ply with the demands of modem thought in pedagogics. 
In no department of life more than in education is there 
authority in the Scripture precept, " Let the dead bury 
their dead." The best examination which a student 
can pass is to show his ability to do the next thing. If 
he can pass this examination successfully, the teacher 
need give little thought to what has gone before. And 
I venture, by the way, to suggest, with reference to the 
urgent inquiry now proceeding as to where the Ameri- 
can youth loses two years of time in his preparation for 
college, whether a large part, if not the whole of that 
serious loss, is not sustained from the everlasting reviews 
and examinations through which the American teacher, 
alike in the primary, the grammar, and the high school, 
insists upon dragging the pupil three times a year or 
oftener; thus not only requiring him to continually go 
over again ground already traversed, but, what is of 
more consequence, creating a sentiment throughout the 



RISE AND IMPORTANCE OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 27 

schoolroom which inspires the scholars to be forever 
looking back instead of forward. 

The last of the advantages attendant upon scientific 
instruction which I shall enumerate, — though the list 
might be still further extended, — is found in a better 
relation between teacher and pupil. I would not will- 
ingly be guilty of exaggeration in this matter. With a 
really great and gifted teacher, the attitude of the 
scholar will always be that of respect and admiration, 
whether with or without affection and personal intimacy. 
But it cannot be denied that, in the traditional college, 
with the traditional subjects of instruction, the relation 
in question is likely to be less than a happy one. On 
the one side there is apt to be an undue assumption of 
knowledge, a tendency to dogmatism, and a too peremp- 
tory way of dealing with the pupil's doubts and difficul- 
ties. On the other side there is apt to be something of 
the tone of resistance, if not of resentment; a disposi- 
tion to escape the teacher's scrutiny, if not to get around 
him with the petty tricks of the recitation-room. 

It would be foolish to assume that there is any virtue 
in the natural and physical sciences which will overcome 
the faults or deficiencies of mind and heart that are 
found in some teachers. There are men who will be 
priggish, pompous, and pretentious in doing anything. 
But there is a wonderful virtue in the studies we are 
considering for bringing teacher and scholar together in 
their work in a most simple, natural, and affectionate 
relation. He is the most successful teacher of science 



28 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

who puts himself in the attitude of discovering truth 
with his pupil, and of hunting with him for the object 
of their common search. Moreover, the very closeness 
of the contact in the laboratory of chemistry, physics, or 
mechanics, is such as to cause a continuous, insensible 
discharge of the electricity generated by the necessarily 
strict requirements of study and discipline, and thus to 
maintain the friendly relations of teacher and pupil, 
unbroken by those storms which sometimes gather and 
burst in colleges where the teacher sits buttoned up, on 
a platform, behind his desk, and lectures to his pupils 
from the chair of authority. 

But it may be said: Considering all that may be 
claimed for the purely educational advantages of the 
scientific studies which run through the curriculum of 
the technological schools, why may not all these advan- 
tages be equally obtained by the student of the tradi- 
tional college, and even to better effect, since there he 
may secure the pure gold of truth freed from the alloy 
of baser metal? — by which term the critic would desig- 
nate the useful, practical applications of science. It is 
here that it behooves us to take issue, most directly and 
aggressively, with those who assert for the old-fashioned 
colleges an educational virtue superior to that of the 
schools we represent. It is of the very essence of our 
case that the directness and immediateness of applica- 
tion to which the studies of our pupils are subject, under 
their very eyes and at their very hands, constitute a tre^ 
mendous educational force, securing a closeness and con- 



RISE AND IMPORTANCE OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 29 

tinuity of attention on the part of the pupil, an earnest- 
ness of effort, a zeal and enthusiasm of work, which it is 
utterly beyond the power of the teacher of classics or 
philosophy to arouse, except in the case of gifted 
students. If proof of this upon a large scale be 
needed, it is enough to refer to the well-known fact 
that law schools and medical schools invariably com- 
mand the energ-ies of their pupils in a far higher 
degree than do the colleges; and that hosts of 
young men who have idled and dawdled away the 
four years nominally devoted to classics and philosophy 
throw themselves with splendid enthusiasm into their 
professional studies when once they, for the first time, 
see upon what ends their efforts are directed, and 
how their energy and application are to promote their 
happiness and usefulness in life. 

Even in the case of those young men who need no 
such incentive to secure their faithful attention and ear- 
nest endeavor, we yet hold that schools of applied 
science and technology possess a distinct advantage, in 
that their students learn the truths of science in a some- 
what different way, and, in the result, know them some- 
what better than do those who study these truths, no 
matter how diligently, without immediate, direct, and 
constant reference to their applications. Without 
dwelling further at this point upon the limitations and 
defects inherent in all academic systems of recitation 
and examination, I believe it to be true that the man 
who, in studying mathematics, for example, has only to 



30 TECHNOLOOICAL EDUCATION. 

look forward to a recitation to-morrow and an examina- 
tion two weeks or two months hence, applies himself 
to the subject necessarily in a spirit different from 
and with a result inferior to the spirit and achievement 
of the man who, continually as he acquires his mathe- 
matics, puts it to use day by day in the laboratory of 
physics, mechanics, hydraulics, or steam engineering. 

For these reasons we must decline to accept the char- 
acterization of the technical applications of science as the 
alloy which debases the pure gold of truth. We look 
upon them, rather, as the tough, elastic bow which sends 
the keen shaft to its mark. And, be it remembered, 
zeal and enthusiasm of work are not to be valued merely 
because, or merely as, they secure directness of attention, 
continuity of application, and sustained endeavor. In 
themselves, of themselves, they are in a high sense an 
educational force, telling immediately and telling power- 
fully upon intellect and character, contributing impor- 
tantly to build up mental and moral substance firmly 
and healthily. 

There is one school in the United States devoted 
mainly to the application of scientific principles to a pro- 
fessional art, which is so well known to all our people, 
and whose work in the development of mind and man- 
hood has been so severely tested in the sight of the coun- 
try and of the whole world, that I cannot forbear to 
allude to it here. I mean the Military Academy at 
West Point. There is no reason to believe that, for the 
thirty years preceding the Civil War, the young men 



BISE AND IMPORTANCE OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 31 

wLo went to that school were in any degree superior to 
those who entered Yale or Harvard. Indeed, there was 
at that time, at least throughout the North, a certain 
disinclination on the part of the more generous and am- 
bitious of our youth to adopt the career of arms. Yet 
when the war broke out, what a wealth of intellect and 
character was displayed by the graduates of that one 
small school during the terrific trial to which they were 
instantly and without preparation subjected! Think 
how many men from that single academy, which had 
fewer living graduates than either Amherst or Williams, 
led army corps and armies with distinction, on the one 
side or the other, in what was perhaps the greatest war 
of modem history! I said " of intellect and character," 
for it is character, even more than intellect, which en- 
ables the commander to bear the tremendous cares, re- 
sponsibilities, and burdens of his office. "What power 
developed, out of those few small classes of raw lads, a 
Grant, a Lee, a Sherman, a Meade, a Jackson, a Thomas, 
the two Johnstons, a Hancock, a Reno, a Reynolds, and 
a Sheridan, not to mention scores of others who " waxed 
valiant in fight " and commanded divisions and corps 
with a skill and address which have excited the admira- 
tion of the professional soldiers of Europe ? ^ Doubtless 

' Those four years of tremendous conflict had wrought the nation 
up to the appreciation of a greatness which does not manifest itself 
in fine phrases and moving utterance. If the war had done nothing 
else for our people, it would have done much simply in teaching 
them that deeds are greater than words. Tlie American people, 
through those long days of anguish and suspense, learned how 
much higher and nobler is the power that can do and dare and 



32 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

in some part it was tlie romance and the highly stimulat- 
ing influences of the military career. Doubtless in p^ 
also it was the special inspiration of the tremendous 
occasion, fraught as that was with the destinies of a con- 
tinent. But I believe it, in still greater part, to have 
been the perfectly natural effect of the application of 
perhaps not extraordinary powers to the thorough, pa- 
tient, unremitting study of scientific principles, directed 
straight upon a worthy profession, under the tuition 
and guidance of renowned masters of that art, and under 
the constant influence of professional ideas, professional 
sentiments, and great professional examples. 

Much more might be said in comparison of the in- 
fluence of scientific teaching as carried on in the schools 
of applied science and technology, with the influence of 
the traditional or of the more modern, revised curricu- 
lum of the classical colleges; but perhaps enough has 
been said to justify the assertion that the former class of 
institutions is just as truly educational as the latter. 
Here I am content to rest my case. This conceded, let 
the youth of the land seek the one or the other kind of 
school, according to their individual tastes, predilections, 
and plans for life. I am far from being so bigoted as to 
suggest that there is not room enough in the educational 
system of the future for all the institutions of the elder 

endure, than the arts of dainty expression, or vehement declama- 
tion, or cunning dialectic in which they had formerly so much 
delighted, too often to the point of subordinating statesmanship to 
oratory. — From address delivered at the opening of the Engineering 
Building, Pennsylvania State College, February 22, 1893. 



RISE AND IMPORTANCE OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 33 

type which have achieved for themselves a name in let- 
ters and philosophy; which have, with pains inexpressi- 
ble, wrought out their own problems and created their 
own constituencies; and each of which has a host of 
eager, devoted alumni, ever turning gratefully to the 
halls in which they were nurtured. But I confidently 
look to see a largely disproportionate number of the new 
institutions which shall from time to time come into 
being, built essentially upon the plan which has achieved 
such prodigious successes during the quarter-century 
now closing. Doubtless the present general scheme of 
the schools of technology will itself undergo consider- 
able modification, alike from the results of added ex- 
perience, from larger means, and from the infusion of 
a wiser and more generous spirit. Doubtless more of 
economic, historical, and philosophical studies will be 
introduced to supplement, by their liberalizing tenden- 
cies, the work of the sciences in making their pupils 
exact and strong. Possibly some ultimate form for in- 
stitutions of the higher learning may yet be developed, 
which shall embody much of both the modern school of 
technology and of the old-fashioned college, with, per- 
haps, something taken from neither, but originating in 
the larger, fuller, riper life of a happier and richer 
future.^ 

' In addition to all the professional uses which he may make of 
scientific principles or technical arts, the student thoroughly trained 
in exact science has acquired (first and foremost) intellectual honesty, 
— that is, complete satisfaction in resting upon the truth, ■whatever 
that may prove to be; then, the power of discrimination in all things 



34 TECHNOLOaiCAL EDUCATION. 

concrete and objective; next, the ability to concentrate attention, and 
to pursue investigation unfalteringly and relentlessly to exact results; 
finally, the mastery, in a high degree, of his own powers and 
faculties. 

The things which scientific study and technical practice do not 
directly tend to give, but which philosophical studies do in a meas- 
ure contribute, are, first, what 1 may call " horizon" — the outlook over 
affairs; secondly, toleration of and patience with what is poor in 
kind and incomplete in form, like much of what one has to do with 
in real life; thirdly, knowledge of men, and address and tact in deal- 
ing with them; fourthly, appreciation of economic conditions, espe- 
cially in the matter of knowing where to stop in the perfecting of 
products, as at the point where it will "pay" best, — that is, where 
the return will most liberally compensate expenditure, in contrast 
with the scientific instinct to make everything perfect, no matter 
what it costs. 

Now, if it were wholly a question between those two classes of ad- 
vantages, so strongly contrasted with each other, — that is, if a man 
could not have both, in some degree, but must " cleave to the one 
and despise the other," I should unhesitatingly say, give to me and 
mine the advantages which especially attach to education and train- 
ing in the exact sciences, even if we must forego those naturally to 
be looked for from philosophical studies. Not only are the former, 
on the whole, more valuable to individuals and to society, but they 
are doubly important in view of the consideration that one who has 
acquired the scientific spirit and the scientific method, who has be- 
come exact and strong, may be broadened and softened by contact 
with men and experience of life. But one is very unlikely to ac- 
quire the spirit and methods of science later in life if he has not 
done so in school; is very unlikely indeed to take up and master 
mathematics, mechanics, and physics, when engaged in active 
duties. 

But it is not a question of taking the advantages which belong to 
one kind of education, and giving up those which belong to the 
other. There is no incompatibility between the two sets of qualities 
especially developed by the two sorts of training. A man may be 
liberal and broad in spirit, and yet exact and strong in his thinking. 
He may have the keenest possible sense of what is incomplete in 
form, yet be tolerant in dealing with the unavQidable imperfections 
of his material, or of his human agents or assistants. He may hold 
in view the perfect instrument, the perfect end, not less strongly 
because his economic sense instructs him that it is necessary to stop 
short at a certain point, in order to secure a return for labor and 
capital to be invested. 



BISE AND IMPORTANCE OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 35 

Not only is there no Incompatibility between these different sets 
of qualities — each actually contributes to the other. Since, thus, a 
man may aspire to have both in fair measure, each in greater perfec- 
tion and higher degree because of the other, it becomes simply a 
question of time and money to the student of science how far he 
shall pursue philosophical studies in addition to his principal work. 
— From a Communication to "The Tech.," April 9, 1891. 



THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL AND THE 
UNIVERSITY 

1893 



An Answer to an Article Entitled " Relations 
OF Academic and Technical Instruction," bt Pro- 
fessor Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, Published in 
the Atlantic Monthly, Adgvst, 1893. From the Atlantic 
Monthly, September, 1893. 



The maia points of Professor Shaler's argu- 
ment are suflficiently indicated in President 
Walker's reply. 



THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL AND THE 
UNIVEESITY. 

In the August number of the Atlantic Monthly Pro- 
fessor Shaler has discussed the relations of academic and 
technical instruction in a way which brings the reader 
to some startling conclusions. So great are the advan- 
tages which a technical school is shown to derive from 
association with a university, so heavy the liabilities to 
narrowness and smallness of aim and purpose in the case 
of an independent school, that those of us who are con- 
nected with technical schools not attached to universi- 
ties find ourselves put upon our defense; and this, too, 
under very serious charges. If any large part of Pro- 
fessor Shaler's position can be maintained, we are of- 
fenders against the cause of sound education. It is our 
duty at once to seek the sheltering arms of the nearest 
university; or, if there be none near enough to take 
charge of us, then we ought to disband and to send our 
students to those who can do better by them. Professor 
Shaler does, indeed, admit that in a favorable environ- 
ment a separate school may achieve a partial success; 
but he holds that this success is likely to be temporary, 
and at the best is attained through the sacrifice of im- 
portant educational interests. In view of such a decla- 
ration by tlie dean of a technical school ^ enjoying the 
' The Lawrence Scientific School. — Ed. 

39 



40 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

protection and patronage of a great university, it is im- 
perative that those who have to do with detached schools 
shall speak in their own behalf. The controversy is not 
of our seeking; and we must be pardoned if we speak 
with frankness on all the points at issue. 

In the first place, it may not unfairly be said that, if 
the advantages of a connection with a university are so 
great, it is inexplicable that the effect of this should not 
more clearly appear in the history of that school which 
Professor Shaler mentions as the first of its class to be 
established, and to which, through the whole extent of 
his article, he refers in illustration of his principle. 
Harvard, as he says, has exercised an admirable hospi- 
tality toward many true and useful forms of learning. 
Its scientific department was founded under peculiarly 
fortunate conditions: a handsome endowment, a noble 
name, a cultivated community, association with the 
oldest college in the country, proximity to the richest 
manufacturing district. All these things seemed to 
assure success ; yet the Lawrence School graduated twice 
as many pupils in the first half as it has in the last half 
of its history. Meanwhile, scores of technical schools 
have come into existence, often under circumstances 
most adverse and with means painfully limited; have 
grown in numbers and increased in reputation through- 
out the general community; and have even come, in 
spite of prejudice, to command a high degree of respect 
and esteem from representatives of the old education. 
Does not this contrast fairly awaken incredulity as to 



TECHNICAL SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY. 41 

Professor Shaler's argument, if indeed it does not create 
a strong presumption that he has overlooked some ele- 
ment, or elements, vital to the case ? 

The strongest instance in apparent corroboration of 
Professor Shaler's views is that afforded by the Sheffield 
School of ISTew Haven, Here is a scientific school, giv- 
ing a large amount of technical instruction, which was 
founded in connection with a university and has 
achieved eminent success. Yet to anyone who knows 
the history of the Sheffield School, its experiences are 
directly in contravention of Professor Shaler's views, 
and indeed furnish the most important instance which 
could be cited against his position. Every Yale man 
knows that the Sheffield School grew up under the total 
neglect of the corporation of the college, for that body 
had nothing to do with the curriculum, and did abso- 
lutely nothing as to the selection of the teachers. Dur- 
ing the eight and a half years of my connection with the 
Sheffield School ^ I but once saw the president of Yale 
in a meeting of its faculty, and that was by special ap- 
pointment, with reference to the question whether the 
students should be required to attend morning prayers. 
So little had the school, in its early days, been considered 
by the corporation that when the Battell Chapel was 
erected, about 1873, no provision was made for giving 
the Sheffield undergraduates seats in it. Do^vn to the 
accession of President Dwight the actual governing 

■ General Walker was Professor of Political Economy at the Shef- 
field Scientific School from 1873 to 1881.— Ed. 



42 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

body was the faculty, under the admirable chairmanship 
of Professor George J. Brush. The faculty made out 
the budget, cut down their own salaries whenever that 
was necessary, apportioned the funds for laboratory and 
general expenses, and selected the men who were to be 
appointed to positions which had become vacant or 
which it was deemed desirable to create. Not a single 
instance occurred where the choice of a professor was 
not solely and exclusively the work of the existing 
faculty. The appointment, in the legal sense, had of 
course to come from the corporation ; but in no case did 
that body or the president take any initiative in the 
matter. 

It was under conditions like these that the Sheffield 
Scientific School passed through the years during which 
its character was being molded and its scholarly tradi- 
tions formed, I understand that Dr. Dwight, since his 
inauguration, has entered deeply into the questions re- 
lating to the Sheffield School and takes an active part in 
its councils. No more generous and comprehensive 
mind could be brought to the problems of any institu- 
tion; and I am far from thinking that, with the tradi- 
tions of the school already formed, the new regime will 
not be consistent with continued growth and prosperity; 
but I am fully convinced that Sheffield owes no small 
part of its brilliant success to the Cinderella-like abase- 
ment and neglect in which its work was begun and con- 
tinued until the institution had passed from the gristle 
of youth into the solid bone of manhood. 



TECHNICAL SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY. 43 

So much for the Lawrence and Sheffield Schools as 
bearing on the issue which Professor Shaler has raised. 
Other technical schools have been founded in connection 
with universities, and some of them have done good 
work. But I know no reason for attributing to the 
School of Mines, in Columbia College, a higher charac- 
ter than that borne by the Stevens Institute, a detached 
school upon the opposite bank of the Hudson; while 
against the success attained by Sibley College, of Cor- 
nell University, may fairly be set the rolls of the alumni 
of the Rensselaer Polytechnic of Troy, the Rose Poly- 
technic of Terre Haute, and the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology. 

But let us leave the comparison of technical schools 
under the two systems, in order to examine the reasons, 
in the nature of the case, which are adduced as showing 
that connection with a university is not merely a favor- 
able and fortunate condition, but a condition essential 
to the proper development and perfecting of every tech- 
nical school. Professor Shaler's first plea has relation 
to the administration. He argues that a competent 
governing body is of the first importance in the career 
of any institution of learning; that it is very difficult to 
obtain a competent body; and that, therefore, when an 
able and successful administration has been secured for 
a university, it must needs be of great service to a tech- 
nical school to come under that rule, and thus to be 
saved from the many possible and even probable disad- 
vantages attendant upon an organization of its own 



44 TECHNOLOOICAL EDUCATION. 

board of trust. What Professor Shaler says regarding 
the vital importance of a strong but liberal and compre- 
hensive government is true. Yet, when we are con- 
sidering the question of the government of a technical 
school, it must be said that there is one element of even 
more importance than the business ability or intellectual 
power of its administrators. This is that they shall be 
deeply interested in the work ; that they shall thoroughly 
believe in technical education; that they shall unaffect- 
edly and profoundly respect the kind of man who is to 
teach in such a school, and the kind of pupil who is to 
receive the teaching. Possibly this is one of the ele- 
ments which Professor Shaler has overlooked. Pos- 
sibly in this respect there has been some failure among 
corporations or boards of trust composed of men bred in 
the old education, and having their standards and ideals 
of character and of conduct shaped by the influence of 
classical culture. Possibly this explains the compara- 
tive failure of some technical schools connected with 
universities. Professor Shaler admits that " still, to 
this day, the tendency has been to regard this depart- 
ment of instruction as something much below the uni- 
versity grade." Until that tendency shall have been 
completely arrested, and even reversed, may it not be 
better that this department of instruction shall be under 
the control and direction of its own devoted friends? 
For myself, I believe that scientific and technical educa- 
tion always encounters a grave risk when put out to 
nurse with representatives of classical culture. 



TECHNICAL SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY. 45 

Moreover, conceding, as has been done, the difficulty 
of securing an adequate governing body for any institu- 
tion of learning, it may yet be said that this difficulty is 
not insuperable. The Institute of Technology has had 
among its trustees, to mention none of the living, men 
like Jacob Bigelow, Erastus B. Bigelow, John D. Phil- 
brick, James B. Francis, George B. Emerson, J. Inger- 
soll Bowditch, Charles L. Flint — men fit to take part in 
the deliberations of senates or of universities, able in 
business, large of view, and faithful to every trust. If 
other technical schools, less fortunately situated, have 
sujBFered somewhat from the lack of liberal and compre- 
hensive administration, it must be remembered that the 
same is true of all the smaller colleges of the land. If 
detached technical schools are to be given up on this 
account, so must these. Yet who does not believe that, 
in spite of limited opportunities and means, our smaller 
colleges have done a truly glorious work for mind and 
manhood ? 

The second advantage, or group of advantages, which 
Professor Shaler attributes to a technical school under 
the patronage of a university may be said to relate to 
the students as distinguished from the governing body. 
The subject is necessarily somewhat vague. I am not 
sure that I rightly apprehend Professor Shaler's mean- 
ing at all points; but, so far as I can gather his views, 
he thinks the pupils derive a benefit in each of the fol- 
lowing ways: 

First, the student in such a school finds himself, in 



46 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

classes pursuing certain subjects essential to his course, 
in company with students not intending to adopt tech- 
nical professions. These subjects may be, for example, 
chemistry, geology, physics, or mathematics — subjects 
which form the groundwork of technical courses, and 
which may also be pursued by college students as a part 
of their general training. Professor Shaler regards this 
association as a source of much advantage, applying to 
it the term '' educative companionship." I confess that, 
unless it is to be presumed that the non-technical stu- 
dents are the better men or the better scholars, this idea 
appears to me very far-fetched. The notion that be- 
cause a young man is going to enter, two or three years 
hence, a law school, a medical school, or a divinity 
school, he therefore contributes some special flavor or 
savor to his class in chemistry, or physics, or geology, or 
mathematics to-day, is carrying the doctrine of final 
cause to an extreme. 

There is only one assumption upon which this plea, 
conceding the equal merit of the students engaged, can 
have any validity. That assumption is often made by 
advocates of the old culture; but I am reluctant to be- 
lieve that Professor Shaler could possibly adopt it, al- 
though he seems to do so when he speaks of " a truly 
academic atmosphere " as " one in which knowledge and 
a capacity for inquiry are valued for their own sake, and 
not measured by their uses in economic employment." 
The fling at technical studies as less " disinterested " 
than studies which are pursued without a direct object 



TECHNICAL SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY. 47 

is one which has often been made in recent educational 
controversy; but those who use it have not seemed to 
me to show thereby their own superior liberality of 
mind/ A young man who is faithfully seeking to 

' The practical uselessness for any immediate purpose of a given 
subject of study may be no reason why it should not be pursued; but, 
on the other hand, the high immediate usefulness of a subject of 
study furnishes no ground from which the educator of loftiest aims 
and purest ideals should regard it with contempt or distrust. In 
either case, the question of real import is in what spirit the study is 
pursued. The most distinguished French writer of to-day on mat- 
ters of education, writing, too, in advocacy not of physical but of 
social science, has frankly paid his tribute to the disinterestedness of 
spirit and loftiness of motive which promote and direct scientific re- 
search, even in its most practical applications. "Let us," he says, 
" pass in review the great founders of modern science and the cre- 
ators of industry, the Keplers and the Fultons, and we shall be 
struck by the idealistic and even Utopian tendency peculiar to 
them. They are, in their own way, dreamers, artists, poets, con- 
trolled by experience." 

And if, leaving abstract reasoning, we turn to contemplate the 
manner in which the several professions are practiced in the commu- 
nity, I seem to find corroboration of the view that the study of 
science and its applications to the arts of life do not tend to produce 
sordid character or to confine the man merely to material aims. 
Every profession has its black sheep and its doubtful practitioners, 
but, while frankly admitting that there are mercenary physicists and 
chemists for revenue only, I boldly challenge comparison between 
the scientific men of America, as a body, and its literary men or even 
its artists, in the respects of devotion to truth, of simple confidence 
in the right, of delight in good work for good work's sake, of indis- 
position to coin name and fame into money, of unwillingness to use 
one thing that is well done as a means of passing off upon the public 
three or four things that are ill done. I know the scientific men of 
America well, and I entertain a profound conviction that in sincerity, 
simplicity, fidelity, and generosity of character, in nobility of aims 
and earnestness of effort, in everything which should be involved in 
the conception of disinterestedness, they are surpassed, if indeed they 
are approached, by no other body of uien.—From Remarks at the 
Dedication of the New Science and Engineering Buildings of McGill 
University, Montreal, February 24, 1893, 



48 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

qualify himself for an honorable and useful career in 
life may be disinterested in every sense in which that 
word can be used with approbation. Disinterestedness, 
in its true meaning, depends, not upon the studies pur- 
sued, not upon their immediate usefulness or uselessness, 
but upon the spirit in which the student enters upon and 
pursues his work. If there be intellectual honesty, 
if there be zeal in investigation, if there be delight in 
discovery, if there be fidelity to the truth as it is dis- 
cerned, nothing more can be asked by the educator of 
highest aims. With such a student the useful applica- 
tions of science distinctly add to the educational value 
of scientific study, inasmuch as they give a more di- 
rect object to his efforts and exertions, and heighten 
the pleasure he feels at each step of his scholarly 
progress. 

The next advantage under this head which Professor 
Shaler finds in technical schools under the patronage of 
universities is in the opportunity afforded to the pupils 
to mingle some philosophical studies with those which 
are essential to their professional courses. In this con- 
nection it must be confessed that the faculties of many, 
perhaps of most, technical schools have made a mistake 
in not providing more so-called liberal studies. I agree 
fully with Professor Shaler in the opinion that such a 
union would conduce to ultimate professional success, 
as well as to the gTcater happiness of the man and the 
greater usefulness of the citizen. But the mistake re- 
ferred to may be fairly attributed to the youth, and also, 



TECHNICAL SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY. 49 

in some measure, to the poverty of the technical schools. 
That it is not in the nature of the case is shown by the 
curriculum of the Institute of Technology, where liter- 
ai*y and philosophical studies extending over three years 
are required of all candidates for a degree. Of the 
Sheffield Scientific School, in this respect, it is enough 
to say that its students have for twenty-five years en- 
joyed the teaching of William D. Whitney and Thomas 
R. Lounsbury. 

Another advantage which Professor Shaler discerns 
as attaching to professional schools under the patronage 
of universities is not easy of description or definition. 
It may, perhaps, be expressed by the single word " at- 
mosphere." That there is something in it no one will 
deny; but the utmost benefit which the students of a 
technical school can derive from this source may easily 
be offset, many times over, by disadvantages arising 
from other sources. The history of Amherst, Dart- 
mouth, and Williams, and of many other American col- 
leges abundantly shows that the best atmosphere for a 
student is that which he himself brings to college with 
him in his own energy, fidelity, and scholarly zeal; that 
the next best atmosphere is that created by learned, 
laborious, and high-minded teachers; the next best, that 
created by a body of devoted fellow students, all intent 
upon the work of preparation for life. Loafing in aca- 
demic groves or browsing around among the varied 
foliage and herbage of a great university, pleasant as it 
may be, and well enough in its way, will have little effect 



50 TECHNOLOQICAL EDUCATION. 

upon the making of the man, in comparison with influ- 
ences more serious, more pervasive, more penetrating. 

That the students of technology throughout our coun- 
try do, as a body, apply themselves to their tasks with 
wonderful energy and enthusiasm is a fact so familiar 
that it hardly needs to be adverted to here. The acces- 
sion of such students to a great university would doubt- 
less do much good to the university; but that the tech- 
nical school would be better for the association may be 
questioned, in view of the multitude of distractions 
which beset ordinary student life and the frivolity of 
many of the interests which are there deemed of prime 
importance. On their part, young men do not greatly 
care to go to schools where they are not respected equally 
with the best; where all the praise and all the prizes go 
to others; where tlie stained fingers and rough clothes 
of the laboratory mark them as belonging to a class less 
distinguished than students of classics or philosophy. 
Professor Shaler remarks upon " ancient prejudices con- 
cerning the humble position of all mechanical employ- 
ments." Is it quite certain that those prejudices are 
even yet so far worn out of the public mind that the 
students and teachers of technology may not feel more 
at ease by themselves, in schools devoted to their own 
purposes, than in schools where snobbishness makes 
odious comparisons, and where fashions are set in re- 
spect to student life, conduct, and dress which they have 
neither the means nor the inclination to imitate? 

With much of what Professor Shaler says regarding 



TECHNICAL SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY. 51 

the desirability of preparing young men for the tech- 
nical professions more by inculcating principles and in- 
spiring a zeal for investigation and a love of learning, 
and less by imparting mere information and teaching 
useful knacks and devices, I heartily concur. Too 
much cannot be said upon this theme. But the ques- 
tion does not necessarily concern the issue raised by Pro- 
fessor Shaler. More than on6 detached school has 
shown the liberality of sentiment, the comprehensiveness 
of view, and the high moral courage necessary to place 
and maintain technical education upon a lofty plane. 



THE RELATION OF PROFESSIONAL 
AND TECHNICAL TO GENERAL 
EDUCATION 

1894 



An argument against the thesis that a liberal 
education should embrace three separate zones : 
disciplinary, liberalizing, professional or tech- 
nical. From the Educational Review, December, 
1894. 



THE EELATION OF PEOFESSIONAL AND TECH- 
NICAL TO GENEEAL EDUCATION. 

Last winter I listened to an address from a gentleman 
of the highest distinction, connected with the educa- 
tional interests of New England, on the subject of " A 
Liberal Education," of which the leading thought was 
that, in an ideal course of education, a young man would 
pass successively through three stages: first, disciplinary; 
second, liberalizing; third, professional or technical. 
According to the view presented, these three stages are 
passed, with us here in America, successively in the pre- 
paratory school, that is, the high school or so-called 
academy; in the college; and, finally, as the name im- 
plies, in the professional school, whether of law, of medi- 
cine, of divinity, or of technology. 

In the middle term or stage of this course — that is, in 
the college — it was the view of the speaker that the 
liberalizing studies should be pursued with a good deal 
of range as to choice of subjects, and of leisure as to the 
time devoted to study, to reflection, to enjoyment of 
work, and even to enjoyment of sport and play. Free- 
dom, a considerable degree of freedom, involving, as 
was said, both liberty of choice as to the subjects of 
study, and leisure as to the application of the student's 
powers, the occupation of his mind, the use of his time, 

55 



56 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

was, if not an essential of the liberalizing effect, at least 
a most favorable and felicitous condition. 

Looking at this scheme from beginning to end, as re- 
lated to the existing organization of American schools 
and liigher institutions of learning, several questions 
suggest themselves in a way to cast some doubt upon 
the apparent harmony of the educational process de- 
picted. 

The first is, whether our high schools and academies 
can be given the credit of bringing their students up to 
the grade of thoroughly disciplined young men ; whether 
the graduates of Exeter and Andover, Easthampton, the 
Boston Latin School, and the ordinary American city 
high school, can safely be assumed to have passed 
through a suflSciently long and severe disciplinary 
process to make it desirable that, immediately upon 
entering college, they should be subjected to the relax- 
ing process; be treated in every way as well-trained 
men ; be afforded large choice as to subjects of study and 
as to the mode of pursuing the subjects chosen, with 
abundance of leisure for intellectual enjoyment, and 
even for sport and play. I confess that this seems to me 
rather a roseate view of our academies and high schools. 
Even if it be conceded that the graduates of such schools 
have already had quite enough of mere gTammatical and 
mathematical drill, and that the full time has come for 
them to be exercised in studies appealing to taste and 
sentiment, in studies of an especially liberalizing tend- 
ency, it seems to me fairly a question whether their 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 57 

tasks, in this stage of education, should not still be made 
to have a distinctly disciplinary character. Can a young 
man be said to have passed through the disciplinary 
period until he has been subjected both to mathematical 
and grammatical gymnastics, and to hard, positive 
training in the elements of logic, philosophy, and clas- 
sical scholarship on the one hand, or of physical or nat- 
ural science on the other? From my own observation 
of several classes leaving a preparatory school, and of 
several times that number of freshman classes entering 
a college or technical school, as well as from reflection 
upon the nature of the case, I should not be disposed to 
answer the foregoing question in the affirmative. On the 
contrary, I believe that the first two years of the ordinary 
American college course should be regarded as belong- 
ing distinctly to the disciplinary stage, in which the sub- 
jects of study should be prescribed by teachers to pupils; 
in which lessons should be regularly assigned and reci- 
tations punctiliously exacted, the idea of mental exercise 
and training forming still the predominant motive on 
the part of the instructor. In saying that, in this stage 
of education, subjects of study should be prescribed by 
teachers to pupils, it is not meant that the same subjects 
should necessarily be prescribed to all pupils. Con- 
sideration might be had, in a large degree, of individual 
aptitudes and inclinations. 

A more fundamental objection to the view of college 
life to which I have called attention is found in the 
length of the term assigned by it to the stage of educa- 



58 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

tion in which a considerable degree of leisure is to be 
allowed the student as a liberalizing influence. If all 
our young men came up to college at eighteen years of 
age with thoroughly well-disciplined minds, I should 
still be disposed to doubt whether four years could be 
spent to advantage by any of them without a strong 
daily sense of present obligation, and without a con- 
siderable pressure from duties rigorously exacted. 
None of us would grudge to a young man, at some time 
or other, before his entrance into real life, or before be- 
ginning a severe course of professional preparation, as 
much as a year of leisure, especially if it could be com- 
bined with opportunities for travel, or with studies in 
art, music, and fine letters. But it may be doubted 
whether any young man was ever the better for four 
years of drifting and comparative aimlessness and idle- 
ness, even though no distinctly bad habits were formed 
in that period. If, in single instances, so long a period 
of leisurely study not directed upon an object, and with 
no severe and constant pressure from without, should 
prove to be just what a peculiarly felicitous organiza- 
tion might require, a teacher might well fear that, with 
a great majority of the members of any college class, the 
habits of mind thus formed would be seriously injurious 
in subsequent professional study and professional prac- 
tice. There could not fail to be danger that, after so 
long a relaxing process, many young men, not of heroic 
mold, would fail to pull themselves together again, and 
would enter upon the real duties of life with somewhat 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 59 

less of energy, of incisiveness, of self-control, of self- 
command, than is needed by those who are to do real 
work with all their mind and with all their might. 

But I am obliged further to raise the question whether 
freedom, in the sense of comparative liberty of choice 
and comparative leisure in study, involving the absence 
of severe and punctilious requirements on the part of the 
teacher, is any necessary condition, at all, of a truly 
liberalizing process. I would not seek to disparage in 
the slightest degree the value of liberal or liberalizing 
exercises, whether with reference to personal happiness 
and social influence in after-life, or with reference to 
subsequent professional labors. Merely for business 
success in the most distinctly technical profession, philo- 
sophical studies are of great importance. In none of 
the higher walks of life does it ever cease to be more the 
question how much of a man one is, than how much he 
knows of his special business. And this is even more 
distinctly true in the engineering profession, for 
example, than in the law. A great lawyer generally is 
a great man, but he need not be: there is a melancholy 
abundance of instances to the contrary. But a great 
engineer must be a great man. All great engineers, 
according to the testimony of those who knew them, 
have been great men. The greatest engineers of the 
world's history have been very great men. The re- 
sponsibilities they have had to bear, the choices tliey 
have been called to make between widely different ways 
of reaching the object sought, the portentous conse- 



60 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

quences of any mistakes they might commit, the unique 
character of every important engineering work, which 
reduces the value of precedent to a minimum, and, I 
might add, the fact that in a large proportion of impor- 
tant engineering enterprises it is the faith and courage 
and enthusiasm of the engineer which carry his con- 
stituency with him and cause it to be decided that the 
work shall be undertaken and the means found — all 
these conditions make demands which can be met only 
by men of calm mind, of large views, of highly con- 
servative yet boldly daring temperament, of thorough 
self-mastery, of great power over others. These are in 
part the gifts of nature ; but they are also, in great part, 
the fruits of culture. 

My contention is, therefore, not against the introduc- 
tion of liberal studies, upon the most liberal scale, 
whether for cultivation or as a means to subsequent 
professional success, but only against the assumption 
that liberal studies, to secure the best effect, must be pur- 
sued with a special degree of liberty of choice and with 
leisureliness of effort. On the contrary, I am disposed 
to hold that liberal studies should he severely pursued; 
and that for the highest results, the more liberalizing 
the tendency of any intellectual exercise, the more is it 
to be desired that it should be followed out with energy, 
vdth closeness of application, with punctiliousness of per- 
formance, with careful scrutiny of the results obtained. 
Certainly, the men of our race who have most conspicu- 
ously illustrated the virtue of mental cultivation do not 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 61 

make upon us the impression that they won their grace 
and power easily and lightly. 

But is this theory of separate zones through which the 
student should successively pass in the course of his edu- 
cation tenable in any part? I do not question that the 
terms, disciplinary, liberalizing, and professional, may 
be applied to three stages of intellectual progress; but I 
should admit these terms only as characterizing the pre- 
ponderant nature of the exercises pursued during these 
successive stages. It is the greatest single fault of our 
academies and high schools to-day that their curriculum 
contains so little of philosophical and liberalizing 
studies. Those schools will not do the work which the 
student requires between fourteen and eighteen, or be- 
tween fifteen and nineteen, years of age, until liberaliz- 
ing, as distinguished from disciplinary, studies are 
taught in them in large amount and by masters who can 
command the attention, awaken the interest, and direct 
the utmost scholarly efforts of their pupils upon themes 
which appeal to taste and sentiment, which arouse en- 
thusiasm, which train the student to weigh evidence, to 
balance probabilities, and to form conclusions for him- 
self. When one remembers the subjects to which, sixty 
years ago, college boys of only fifteen and sixteen years 
of age applied themselves, and to which, thirty years 
ago, college boys of only sixteen and seventeen years 
gave no inconsiderable part of their time, either in the 
recitation room or in the literary or debating society, it 
seems absurd to-day to see great fellows of nineteen 



62 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

come up to college who have hardly ever been addressed 
upon philosophical themes, almost their whole educa- 
tional experience having been limited to grammatical 
and mathematical drill or to the acquisition of positive 
information, most of which should have been allowed to 
rest undisturbed, until required for actual use, in the 
gazetteer, the cyclopedia, and the classical manual. It 
is from this point of view that the procrastination of the 
age for entering college appears most to be deprecated. 
It is not primarily the loss of time which one regrets, but 
the fact that the liberalizing studies are introduced so 
late. No boy ought to pass the age of sixteen without 
being addressed on philosophical themes, without being 
taught to reason, without being made to interest himself 
in subjects of the highest moral and social importance. 
So much everyone must admit. For myself, I go 
farther, and would say that almost the only limit to the 
advantageous introduction of liberalizing studies into 
the academy and high school is to be found in the diffi- 
culty of securing teachers competent to awaken the 
pupils' minds and to present the higher themes of 
thought and reflection in a simple and attractive man- 
ner. That is my first criticism of the theory of educa- 
tional zones. 

On the other hand, I see no harm, but rather a dis- 
tinct advantage, in having the studies of college inti- 
mate and introduce those of the professional school. Of 
course, this can be done only when the choice of a pro- 
fession has already been made ; but, where, as in a large 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 63 

proportion of instances is the case, the college student 
knows what his occupation in life is to be, no small part 
of his time in college may, without any loss of liberaliz- 
ing influence, be directed straight upon that end. If 
the student is to go from college to a law school, why 
should not his college studies be largely determined by 
that fact? ISTot that he should anticipate in the slight- 
est measure the technical study of the law; but I would 
have a broad foundation laid for it in the extensive culti- 
vation of history, of economics, of ethics, of logic and 
philosophy, and perhaps of Roman law. If, on the 
other hand, the pupil looks forward to becoming a phy- 
sician, he might advantageously devote a part of his 
college course to biology, botany, physiology, and 
chemistry. These studies are admitted by nearly all 
candid educators to be as truly of a liberalizing and up- 
lifting tendency, at least for those who have a natural 
inclination toward them, as are the traditional exercises 
of the classical college, at least for such as have not a 
natural inclination toward them. Certainly, among the 
men of our own race, no finer examples of cultivated 
manhood can be found than in the ranks of those who 
have been eminent in natural history. Again, the pupil 
who looks forward to a school of engineering, upon the 
completion of his college studies, might very well de- 
vote a large part of his total time to mathematics and 
physics, studies which, when properly pursued, are truly 
liberalizing, refining, and elevating. 

It might be supposed that the recommendation that, so 



64 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

far as the plans of the pupil will admit, college studies 
should intimate and introduce the subsequent work of 
the professional school was offered with a view either to 
shortening the term of professional study or to making 
possible a larger amount of professional attainments in 
the result. And, indeed, there appears no sufficient 
objection to securing in this way the double object of 
mental expansion and cultivation, and a fortunate intro- 
duction to and preparation for professional study. Yet, 
in making this suggestion, I have chiefly in view an- 
other and a higher object. Through such a use of the 
college term, the student would enter the professional 
school with broader views and with a nobler ambition. 
It seems not altogether for good that a young man 
should, in effect, say, " I have finished my term of liberal 
education ; I will now turn, in a different spirit and with 
a different purpose, to take up my direct preparation for 
professional life." By such a system as has been sug- 
gested, a young man who in college had become thor- 
oughly interested in history, economics, ethics, logic, 
and philosophy, would not feel that he was breaking off 
his course, or was taking an essentially different direc- 
tion when he entered the law school. On the contrary, 
would he not begin his new work, not only with a cer- 
tain valuable preparation which would be found useful 
through the whole extent of his legal studies, but with a 
larger comprehension of the social relations of his pro- 
posed profession, with the capability for a keener appre- 
ciation of his law school studies and exercises, and with 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 65 

a higher professional ambition? Would not the same 
be true of a student going to a medical school from a 
college in which he had largely devoted himself to 
biology, botany, physiology, and chemistry; in which 
he had acquired not only a certain amount of knowledge 
that would become of professional use, a certain skill 
with the microscope and the instruments of dissection, a 
certain instinctive aptitude for experimental work, but 
also a great enthusiasm for natural history, a profound 
respect for its masters and investigators, a keen delight 
in experiment and discovery? 

Finally, coming now to the professional school, it ap- 
pears to me that it should jiot be the view of those who 
lay out its courses and arrange its exercises, that either 
the disciplinary or the liberalizing work of education 
has been completed. So far from this, I would have 
those who control and administer the law school, the 
medical school, and the school of engineering, consider 
it their primary duty to train the powers of the pupil, to 
widen his outlook over life, to secure for him the con- 
servative influences of culture, to expand and enrich his 
mind, both for his own greater happiness and for liis 
higher usefulness to society. Speaking as the head of 
a professional school, I say in all sincerity that those pro- 
fessional schools will best accomplish their strictly tech- 
nical purposes which send their graduates out into the 
world with broad, well-balanced minds; with the faculty 
of judgment strengthened by the mastery of principles 
more than by the acquisition of information; with tern- 



66 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

peraments chastened to the true union of conservatism 
and enterprise by study of the best examples from prac- 
tice; and even with fine tastes and high aspirations. 

Reference has been made to the conservative influ- 
ences of culture. It is the one fatal weakness of the 
self-made man that, at any point in a successful career, 
there is a liability to collapse, or to the commission of 
first-class errors almost beyond the power of the well- 
educated man to commit. The ghastliest mistakes of 
life are those of self-made men theretofore successful, 
whether in war, in politics, in professional practice, or 
in business. It might almost be said that the gi*eater 
the degree of previous success, or the more uniform that 
success, the greater becomes the danger that, at some 
critical point, the self-made man will overestimate his 
own powers; or foolishly despise some really formidable 
antagonist or competitor who does not answer to his 
notions, derived from a limited experience, of what may 
make an antagonist or competitor formidable ; or under- 
rate some evil liability because it is of a novel type; or 
take one thing for another on account of some superfi- 
cial resemblance ; or in some other way commit the capi- 
tal blunder of his life. And it is true, also, that the 
fatal errors of self-made men largely occur after the 
period of life when they might perhaps have been re- 
paired. The educated man makes his mistakes at or 
near the start. The self-made man is more likely to 
make his when it is too late either to learn from them or 
to surmount their consequences. 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 67 

Permit me to illustrate mj views regarding the pro- 
fessional school as a place where mental discipline and 
mental culture are still the first considerations, by a 
somewhat free reference to the action recently taken by 
the authorities of a distinguished American university 
in respect to its law school. For many years, it is well 
known, Columbia College maintained a law school 
which, of its type, was not surpassed or perhaps equaled 
in our country. A very remarkable amount of both 
teaching and executive ability had been employed in 
securing for it a pronounced success in carrying out its 
fundamental plan of instruction. Of late, however, 
under the administration of President Low, this school 
has, in effect, been cut off from the university; and a 
school of a very different type, more closely resembling 
the law school of Harvard University, has been organ- 
ized in its place. This action of Columbia College is 
one at which all friends of education should rejoice. It 
may be that there is in ^ew York, and perhaps in other 
large cities, a need of law schools like that so long main- 
tained, with such remarkable success, under the dean- 
ship of Professor D wight: law schools in which young 
men who have not the time or means to fit themselves 
fully, in a large and liberal way, for that dignified and 
honorable profession, should be enabled to acquire, 
rapidly and effectively, the elements of the law, and to 
pick up knowledge enough to enable them to pass the 
bar examinations: perhaps later, in the course of prac- 
tice, to make themselves learned and accomplished law- 



68 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

yers, perhaps not. But such an establishment ought 
not to be connected with a university, ^o university 
has the right to maintain any school in which the pri- 
mary object is not to make the pupils scholars in some 
high sense of that term; in which learning is not to be 
loved and honored for its own sake, as well as for its 
practical uses; the atmosphere of which shall not be 
highly academic; in which much shall not be taught 
which the student may not have reason to employ in 
the early stages, or perhaps in any stage, of his profes- 
sional career; in which more importance shall not be 
attached to the mastery of principles than to the gaining 
of information or to the acquisition of precepts, formulae, 
and the useful knacks and devices of a trade. It is not 
merely that men who are trained in schools maintaining 
a high academic character are certain, in the long run, 
to achieve a greater professional success: an even 
stronger reason, still, is found in the consideration that 
men thus educated are certain to contribute in larger 
measure to that dignity and esprit de corps which con- 
stitute the savor of any profession, preserving it, if any- 
thing can, from corruption and degeneration, from un- 
worthy arts and disreputable practices. 

The question has of late been actively discussed 
whether, for the best effect, technical schools should be 
connected with universities. The reason of the case 
seems to differ not a little with reference to different 
classes of professional schools. The history of our 
country does not teach that this connection is highly im- 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 69 

portant in schools of divinity. The schools of this class 
which have exerted the greatest influence upon the life 
and thought of the nation have been separate schools, 
or have been connected with universities by a very slight 
tie. Possibly one might say that the reason for the 
compai'ative success of separate schools of divinity has 
largely passed away with changed professional condi- 
tions and with even greater changes in the public 
thought. Seventy years ago, forty years ago, the min- 
isterial profession had much more of an unworldly char- 
acter than it has to-day; and there was a certain and a 
large advantage, according to the ideals of the times, inl 
keeping the students of divinity apart by themselves, in 
an atmosphere of their own, where they should be as 
little as possible subject to influences which might have 
been deemed discordant with the proper sentiments of 
the theological seminary, or might have interfered with 
the profound and lasting impression which the masters 
of theology desired to make upon their pupils. To-day 
the clergyman is largely a man of affairs; the impor- 
tance of denominational tenets is greatly reduced, even 
in the minds of theologians; and it seems not unreason- 
able to say that these changed conditions fairly remove 
some part, at least, of the special advantage formerly 
enjoyed by the separate schools of divinity. 

In respect to schools of medicine, the evidence derived 
from past experience is conflicting. Certainly, some of 
the strongest schools of this class in the United States 
have held, at most, but a nominal relation to universities. 



10 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

On the other hand, as it appears to me, a layman, there 
has always been a certain leadership by schools inti- 
mately connected with universities and under strong aca- 
demic influences, notably in the case of the Medical 
School of Harvard. There seems little reason to doubt 
that the developments of the future will be mainly, if 
not wholly, in the direction of medical schools vitally 
related to our leading universities, and owing a large 
share of their scientific spirit and professional enthu- 
siasm to such a relationship. 

It is in respect to law schools that the considerations 
favoring the union of professional schools with univer- 
sities attain their greatest force. The clerical profes- 
sion is, by the very definition, a consecrated profession; 
and those who pursue it must come and remain under 
influences which promote disinterestedness and self- 
devotion. The medical profession is, in the nature of 
the case, at least a semi-consecrated profession, the in- 
tense interest of the physician in the welfare of his 
patients and in the relief of pain and suffering neces- 
sarily constituting a powerful force, ^vhich, in spite of 
the disturbing influence of specialization, tends to make 
the practitioner in a high degree disinterested and to 
draw him on from stage to stage of true professional 
advancement. The legal profession, on the contrary, 
alike through the tendency to constantly increasing 
specialization, through the great rewards to be reaped 
by professional success, and through the large oppor- 
tunities afforded for sharp practice and unworthy arti- 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 11 

fices, is always in danger of degenerating into a selfish, 
money-making, and unprincipled pursuit. Painful 
illustrations of this tendency are constantly appearing. 
Under such conditions, everything that makes the law 
student more scholarly, that gives him a higher respect 
for his profession, that furnishes him with motives and 
incentives to high-mindedness and unselfishness in prac- 
tice, must be for the good of the profession and the com- 
munity. And it is here that the influence of the 
university may be exerted to profit. 

In the case of the engineering school and the school 
of technology, the considerations which should affect us 
differ not a little from those which stand related to the 
classes of schools already mentioned, owing to the exist- 
ence of ancient prejudices, not yet outworn, in the minds 
of the general community and especially of those who 
control our higher institutions of learning. The school 
of law, the school of medicine, the school of divinity are 
all academic by tradition. Schools for these classes 
have for centuries been connected with universities; 
their characteristic studies have won a place in public 
estimation; proficiency in those studies has long been 
recognized by the conferring of the highest academic 
degrees; students of these schools stand in a position of 
honor before the undergraduates of the proudest univer- 
sity. With the school of engineering or of technology 
the case is different. The professions for which they 
prepare their pupils are new ; and the exercises by which 
the student is trained in them are still subject, in some 



12 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION 

degree, to antiquated and snobbisli prejudice. I have 
no desire at this time to go over the ground of my con- 
troversy, a year ago, with Professor Shaler of the Law- 
rence Scientific School; ^ but will content myself with 
remarking that no advantages which could possibly re- 
sult to a school of engineering or technology from asso- 
ciation with a university — and those advantages need 
not be characterized as slight — will compensate for the 
disadvantages of such a union, if there is to be any 
failure on the part 'of the administrators and governors 
of the university profoundly to believe in the kind of 
education given in such a school, thoroughly to respect 
the sort of man who is to study in such a school and the 
sort of man who is to give the instruction, and in all 
ways to magnify and exalt the dignity and importance of 
the professions for which such a school prepares its 
pupils. And again, if there is to be among the body of 
students at a university any lack of consideration for 
the technical student, any disposition to look upon him 
as preparing himself for a work of less dignity and im- 
portance than that of the so-called learned professions, 
any of that snobbishness of feeling which sometimes 
leads young men to look upon the soiled fingers and 
rough clothes of the laboratory or machine shop as 
badges of social inferiority, then it is certain that stu- 
dents and teachers of technology will be more at ease by 
themselves, in schools devoted to their own purposes. 

' See The Technical School and the University, p. 37 ante. 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. VS 

I have thus far spoken of the relations of technical 
and professional to general education in a series of 
schools represented bj the academy or high school, the 
college, and the professional school. I come now to a 
more difficult question, about which, as more difficult, 
I shall have not more, but less, to say: namely, what 
shall be the relations of technical and professional to 
general education in cases where the college drops out 
altogether; where young men find themselves without 
the time or pecuniary means to interpose any course of 
study between the high school and the professional 
school? It is well known that this is the condition of 
by far the greater part of those who at any time in this 
country are fitting themselves for professional life. 
And this statement is equally true whether we take all 
classes of professional schools together or take each class 
by itself. As I can claim to know little of schools of 
law, medicine, and divinity, I shall confine my remarks 
to schools of engineering and technology. 

When Mr. Abbott Lawrence made his munificent 
gift for the endowment of the Lawrence Scientific 
School, it is plain that the students of that school were 
expected to be, in the main, college graduates who had 
received their training and cultivation at Harvard or 
some other of the old-fashioned colleges of those days. 
This expectation has been altogether disappointed. In 
the last list of the students of the La^vrence School which 
I have examined appear the names of only eight col- 
lege graduates. The Sheffield School at Yale has sue- 



74 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

ceeded in retaining a certain number of graduates from 
its own three-years' course, and in attracting a few 
graduates of Yale College and of other institutions; but 
its last catalogue shows the proportion of graduate stu- 
dents to be but about seven per cent. Of recent years, 
the proportion of graduate students at the Institute of 
Technology has been four or five per cent., rising, the 
present year, to seven. It is clear, therefore, that we 
are to look upon the schools of applied science or tech- 
nology as having, by the necessity of the case, to serve 
their students both as colleges of culture and as profes- 
sional schools; the only alternative being that, if these 
schools refuse the office of promoting the mental devel- 
opment, training, and culture of their students, those 
young men must go altogether without the advantages 
which the college man seeks in college. Our question, 
then, is: can the school of applied science or technology, 
in any part, — and if so, in how large a part, — make up 
to the student the loss of a college course ? 

In the first place, one may venture to inquire 
whether the loss is, in point of fact, as great as might 
at first appear. Conceding fully that college life is a 
very charming thing at the time, and that the recollec- 
tions of it and the associations formed through it add 
much to the pleasure of subsequent existence; conceding 
that every parent would gladly secure for his son this 
privilege if his means allowed, are we bound to state the 
loss of time, for all effective purposes of mental disci- 
pline and cultivation, in the case of those who miss a col- 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 15 

lege course, at full four years? I should be disposed, 
from my observation of the average college student, to 
put the loss at very much less than this. But, whatever 
the estimate of loss, can the school of applied science and 
technology afford the diligent student an opportunity to 
make up a part of what he has missed in not going to 
college? Are the necessary requirements of profes- 
sional preparation such and so great, that the student of 
one of these schools must feel that this part of his edu- 
cation has been entirely sacrificed ; and that he must con- 
tent himself with a practical preparation for professional 
success, accepting a certain and a considerable defi- 
ciency upon the side of mental discipline and cultiva- 
tion, as a part of his lot in life? 

To the foregoing question I have no hesitation, as the 
result of my own observation and reflection, in giving a 
negative answer. For all the scientific professions 
which I know anything about, the best technical prepa- 
ration is that which will also prove to be predominantly 
of a truly educational character, expanding and enlarg- 
ing the mind, disciplining the powers, and fitting its sub- 
ject for manhood and citizenship. 

The question, how far immediate professional success 
is to be weighed against ultimate professional success, 
has already been decided, by our large American experi- 
ence, in favor of a decided preference to be given to the 
latter. It is, of course, an immense advantage to the 
students of technical schools, and to their parents and 
friends, that the young graduate is at once able to earn 



16 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

liis livelihood/ In this clay, when social necessities are 
so grinding, and when it is so hard to start a son in life, 
that advantage is not to be neglected. Yet there is 
always a wide field of choice open to those who control 



' As to the salaries received by our graduates [of the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology], individually or as a body, I have almost no 
information. It is a subject which has never concerned me in the 
least; and I have not even taken the trouble to collate and preserve 
•whatever information has come to me casually. I presume it is with 
the engineering profession and the architectural profession as it is 
with the profession of lawyer or doctor, namely, that there is a cer- 
tain number who attain the prizes; and another very much hirger 
number who realize an immediate and comfortable support; and an- 
other, I should hope a very much smaller number, who simply get 
on. We all know that there are hosts of lawyers and doctors who 
earn nothing but the barest living, even if they pay their office rent. 
I see no reason why the same should not be true of engineers or 
architects or chemists. If a man will simply go on surveying, year 
after year, continuing indefinitely to do what any young man a year 
out of a technical school can do fairly well, there is no reason why 
he should receive a very high salary for the service, since the num- 
ber of persons who would be glad to do this at a moderate compensa- 
tion would be very large. There is no mystery or magic about a 
scientific profession. Such an education as we give here enables a 
man, after a few years' experience, to take the very highest positions 
in the direction of business and in the conduct of industry; but a 
man has to do something in this world besides qualify himself for 
advanced positions. lie has to seek them and to find them. He 
must have the tact, the savoir faire, the energy, the patience, the 
good sense to make his way; exactly as would be the case with the 
well-educated young lawyer or young doctor. No school makes a 
man. All it can do is to take the man as he comes to it and fit him 
by training, by practice, and by information imparted, for whatever 
duties he may encounter in his professional life. The man has still 
to make his own career. The fact that he has professional standing 
at the start gives him an advantage over the college-bred man in 
getting a living for the first two or three years. After that the rate 
at which he shall go forward will depend entirely upon his capacity, 
energy, fidelity, and tact. — From a letter to an intending student, 
1896. 



PROFESSIONAL AND GENERAL EDUCATION. 77 

technical schools, as to the degree in which they will 
offer to their pupils studies and exercises the value of 
which will be most fully realized in the first few years 
after graduation, or studies and exercises whose value 
will be increasingly felt through the whole course of 
their professional careers, and which will qualify them, 
in larger and ever larger measure, for positions of re- 
sponsibility and trust, with advancing years. Such 
studies and exercises are almost wholly of a nature to 
afford mental discipline and culture in a very high de- 
gree. It would be strange, indeed, if in the infancy of 
technological education, mistakes had not been made in 
this matter, the teacher, in his eagerness to fit the stu- 
dent for professional life, assigning too much value to 
those things which are of immediate utility. But I feel 
confident, from a careful study of institutions of this 
class in the United States, that this error has already 
been very largely apprehended, in all its seriousness; 
that among those who administer technological educa- 
tion, there is a decided movement in the direction of sub- 
ordinating the acquisition of the knacks of a trade and 
mere technical devices to the study of principles; and 
that, even in the applications of principles, valuable, and 
invaluable, as these are in technological education, refer- 
ence is now had rather to their effect in giving a greater 
mastery of the principles themselves, than to their imme- 
diate utility in professional practice. Nay, more, I 
confidently believe that even in the study of scientific 
principles themselves, a continuously increasing regard 



V8 TECHNOLOOICAL EDUCATION. 

will be paid to their influence in expanding the mind, 
enlarging the view, elevating the aims, and strengthen- 
ing the character of the pupil. 

But we should not trust alone to the study of scientific 
principles in a technological school for making good to 
the pupil the loss of a college education. There should 
be introduced into all technical courses no inconsiderable 
degree of purely philosophical study. The experience, 
during twenty-nine years, of the school with which T. 
have the honor to be connected, shows this to be entirely 
feasible. No one has ever received the degree of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has not, in 
addition to all scientific and technical studies and exer- 
cises, taken substantial courses, extending through at 
least three years, not only in modern languages, but also 
in history, literature, and economics. Of course, under 
the conditions existing, a large amount of time cannot 
be assigned to such studies; but if they are pursued with 
the zeal and earnestness which characterize the students 
of these schools, much can yet be done in a limited 
period. As before remarked, liberalizing studies need 
not be followed out either in a loose or a leisurely man- 
ner. With a proper arrangement of subjects and with 
good teachers, it is entirely possible for those who ad- 
minister the institutions of applied science and tech- 
nology to give their pupils, in addition to the studies and 
exercises which will make themresolute, exact, and strong, 
at least a moderate measure of the studies and exer- 
cises which will make them also broad and high and fine. 



TECHNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL 
EDUCATION 

1896 



An Address Delivered at the Dedication op the 
Clarkson Memorial School of Technology, Potsdam, 
New York, November 30, 18%. 



President Walker's last public address upon 
education. 



TECHNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 

In reading recently the very valuable work entitled 
Notes on North America, by Professor J. F. W. John- 
ston, of Scotland, published in 1851, I came across this 
passage:^ "Dr. Wayland has rendered it exceedingly 
probable — I may say, has almost demonstrated — that 
the cause of the falling off in the number of students in 
the New England universities is not the expense in- 
curred, but the inadequacy, in kind, of the instruction 
given in these institutions to meet the more pressing 
wants of a people advancing rapidly in all the arts of 
life." The interest which this reference aroused led 
me to search for the ^vritings of Dr. Wayland to which 
Professor Johnston here alluded. In a report to the 
Corporation of Brown University, on " Changes in the 
System of Collegiate Education," printed in 1850, I 
find that distinguished educator and great master of 
moral philosophy discussing the courses of study most 
beneficial to the community in a spirit so admirable, 
with a freedom from prejudice so remarkable, with a 
breadth of comprehension so rarely attained, that I am 
sure it will deeply interest you to hear his words, even at 
some length. 

That which prompted President Wayland to this in- 
vestigation was the very striking fact that — as you will 
' Vol. I., p. 475 (American edition). — Ed. 
81 



82 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

now be surprised to hear — the number of college stu- 
dents had for a long time not only failed to keep pace 
with the growth of wealth and population, but had even 
declined. Taking the twelve colleges and universities 
which then formed the New England system, Dr. Way- 
land found that, while the average attendance for the 
five-year period 1840-44 had been 2063, the number 
had sunk for the period 1845-49 to 2000, while for the 
year 1850 it was only 1884. Yet during this time there 
had been a great increase of endowments and of annual 
grants for reducing tuition, and even for making it free 
to many classes of students. Upon this remarkable 
showing President Wayland dwells with much emphasis. 
" It would seem," he says, " from such facts as these, 
that our present system of collegiate education is not 
accomplishing the purposes intended, . . Our colleges 
are not filled, because we do not furnish the education 
desired by the people. . . We have produced an article 
for which the demand is diminishing. We sell it at less 
than cost, and the deficiency is made up by charity. We 
give it away; and still the demand diminishes." 

Tracing this effect back to its cause, Dr. Wayland 
found in the curriculum of the American colleges which 
then existed a grave lack of adaptation to the needs of 
the community. " We have," he says, " in this coun- 
try one hundred and twenty colleges, forty-two theo- 
logical seminaries, and forty-seven law schools, and we 
have not a single institution designed to furnish the 
agriculturist, the manufacturer, the mechanic, or the 



TECHNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 83 

merchant with the education that will prepare him for 
the profession to which his life is to be devoted." 

This failure of the educational institutions of the 
country to meet the real needs of the people was then, 
as Dr. Wayland conceived it, becoming ever more and 
more painfully felt. " With the present century," he 
says, " a new era dawned upon the world. A host of 
new sciences arose, all holding important relations to the 
progress of civilization. Here was a whole people in an 
entirely novel position. Almost the whole nation was 
able to read. Mind had been quickened to intense 
energy by the events of the Revolution. The spirit of 
self-reliance had gained strength by the result of that 
contest. A country rich in every form of capability had 
just come into their possession. Its wealth was inex- 
haustible, and its adaptation to the production of most 
of the great staples of commerce unsurpassed. All that 
was needed in order to develop its resources was well- 
directed labor. But labor can only be skillfully directed 
by science ; and the sciences now coming into notice were 
precisely those which the condition of such a country 
rendered indispensable to success. 

" That such a people could be satisfied with the teach- 
ing of Greek, Latin, and the elements of mathematics, 
was plainly impossible. Lands were to be surveyed, 
roads to be constructed, ships to be built and navigated, 
soils of every kind, and under every variety of climate, 
were to be cultivated, manufactures were to be estab- 
lished which must soon come into competition with 



84 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

those of more advanced nations; and, in a word, all the 
means which science has provided to aid the progress of 
civilization must be employed if this youthful republic 
would place itself abreast of the empires of Europe." 

" The moral conditions being equal," Dr. Wayland 
remarks in another place, " the progress of a nation in 
wealth, happiness, and refinement is measured by the 
universality of its knowledge of the laws of nature and 
its skill in adapting these laws to the purposes of man. 
Civilization is advancing; and it can only advance in 
the line of the useful arts. It is, therefore, of the 
greatest national importance to spread broadcast over the 
community that knowledge by which- alone the useful 
arts can be multiplied and perfected. Every producer 
who labors in his art scientifically is the best of all ex- 
perimenters; and he is, of all men, the most likely, by 
discovery, to add to our knowledge of the laws of nature. 
He is, also, specially the individual most likely to invent 
the means by which those laws shall be subjected to the 
service of man. Of the truth of these remarks every- 
one must be convinced who will observe the success to 
which any artisan arrives, who, fortunately, by his own 
efforts (for at present he could do it in no other way), 
has attained to a knowledge of the principles which 
govern the process in which he is employed. 

" Suppose that since the Revolution as much capital 
and talent had been employed in diffusing among all 
classes of society the knowledge of which every class 
stands in need, as has been employed in inculcating the 



TECHNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 85 

knowledge needed in preparation for the professions, is 
it possible to estimate the benefits which would have 
been conferred upon our country? The untold millions 
that have been wasted by ignorance would have been 
now actively employed in production. A knowledge 
universally diffused of the laws of vegetation might 
have doubled our annual agricultural products. Prob- 
ably no country on earth can boast of as intelligent a 
class of mechanics and manufacturers as our own. Had 
a knowledge of principles been generally diffused among 
them we should have already outstripped Europe in all 
those arts which increase the comforts or multiply the 
refinements of human life. Perhaps in the earlier his- 
tory of our country such knowledge would not have been 
adequately appreciated. That period, however, has now 
passed away. An impulse has been given to common- 
school education which cannot but render every man 
"definitely sensible of his wants, and consequently eager 
to supply them. The time, then, would seem to have 
arrived when our institutions of learning are called upon 
to place themselves in harmony with the advanced and 
rapidly-advancing condition of society." 

Four years later — namely, in 1854 — Dr. Wayland 
delivered an address at Union College, on the fiftieth 
anniversary of the presidency of Eliphalet Nott, in 
which he took up again the question of the studies 
which should be pursued in colleges, and advanced dis- 
tinctly from his position of 1850. On the former occa- 
sion the main weight of his argument had been, first, 



86 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

that the colleges needed the new subjects of study as a 
means of saving themselves from decline in influence 
and in numbers; secondly, that the country needed to 
have the colleges take up these subjects, in order that 
its industries might be prosecuted and its resources de- 
veloped with skill and scientific knowledge. In the 
Union College address President Wayland asserted, with 
great emphasis, his conviction, not only that the new 
subjects of study were, if not of peculiar educational 
virtue, at the least equally well entitled to be recognized 
and respected as appropriate means for the development 
of mind and the molding of character ; but, also, that the 
union of the two classes of subjects in our colleges was 
essential to secure the best effect of either, the two sup- 
plementing and reinforcing each other. Strongly re- 
pudiating the traditional idea that there are two kinds of 
knowledge : " one necessary for the attainment of our 
means of happiness, but incapable of nourishing and 
strengthening the soul; and the other tending to self- 
culture, but leading to no single practicable advantage," 
President Wayland advanced boldly to the position that 
the cultivation of the natural and physical sciences, both 
by themselves and with direct reference to their social 
and industrial uses, was to be regarded as essential to the 
completion of the college curriculum, so that the tastes, 
the aptitudes, and the intellectual abilities of each pupil 
might find the most congenial field for study and re- 
search. Time will not permit me to quote from Dr. 
Wayland's address on this point. It is the less impor- 



TEGHNOLOGIGAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 87 

tant because all whicli Dr. Wayland, in defiance of tlie 
traditional opinions of the day, then claimed for scien- 
tific and technical studies and exercises, has since been 
fully conceded, and has, indeed, furnished the reason for 
sweeping changes in the curriculum, and even in the 
entrance requirements, of the classical colleges. When 
we see the oldest university of America conferring its 
degree upon those who have never had an hour of either 
Latin or Greek within its walls, and even dropping 
Greek from its list of positive entrance requirements, 
we get a measure of the enormous advance in educa- 
tional philosophy which has taken place since President 
Wayland dared to challenge the opinion, then univer- 
sally held by the teachers and governors of American 
colleges and universities, that the classics were absolutely 
essential to liberal culture and that no one could be 
called a well-educated man without them. 

Truly remarkable as were these words of the illus- 
trious president of Brown University, in that stage of 
our industrial development. Dr. Wayland was yet rather 
a prophet than a pioneer. During the decade which fol- 
lowed, there occurred a considerable extension of studies 
in science, especially in natural science, in his own uni- 
versity and in many of the colleges of the traditional 
type; but the creation of the modern school of science 
and technology was yet to come. A few purely tech- 
nical schools had, indeed, been already brought into 
existence. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at 
Troy had been founded as early as 1824, though its 



88 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

actual work was for some years delayed. About 1846- 
47, the Scientific Department of Yale and the Lawrence 
Scientific School of Harvard came into existence; and 
the University of Michigan took on an engineering de- 
partment. These were, however, as we must now view 
them, rather technical than educational in their plan and 
purpose. They aimed to give to their small bodies of 
students the special training needed to equip them for 
practical work as engineers or chemists. They did not 
assume responsibility for the general education of their 
pupils. They were not colleges, in the sense in which 
the modern scientific and technical school is a college. 
Even with this limitation, these schools did a work, 
though necessarily on a very small scale, in the develop- 
ment of American arts and industries, which deserves 
most cordial recognition. One cannot read the roll of 
the early graduates of the Rensselaer Institute, for 
example, without admiration. But it was reserved for 
the period of the great Civil "War, and the years imme- 
diately succeeding, to witness the rapid development of 
the modern college of the sciences and the useful arts. 
How far this marvelous growth of institutions adapted to 
the requirements of modem life was due to the war 
itself, working a tremendous incitement of the national 
ideals, ambitions, and aspirations ; how far it was due to 
the stage of industrial development which had been 
reached in the peaceful progress of the nation, it would 
not be profitable to speculate. Certain it is that our 
people, in their eager exploitation of the natural re- 



TECHNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 89 

sources of the continent, had attained a condition where 
it became absolutely necessary that the enterprises into 
which their labor and capital were to be put should be 
organized and directed with much more of skill and of 
scientific knowledge than had been applied to their early 
efforts at manufacture and transportation. The larger 
scale on which the operations of trade and production 
were to be carried on, the ever-increasing possibilities of 
business, the rapidly intensifying severity of competi- 
tion, the quickening of communication, had created an 
urgent want for greater technical skill and more highly 
trained intelligence. The old wasteful ways of dealing 
with materials, the rule-of-thumb methods of construc- 
tion, the haphazard administration, which characterized 
our earlier industrial efforts, could not have been con- 
tinued without greatly retarding the national develop- 
ment, if not without in-eparable loss in the result. In a 
sense, and in a high sense, the scientific and technical 
school came because the time for it had come. Never- 
theless, it is to be confessed, or rather, it is to be grate- 
fully admitted, that the promptness and the fullness by 
which these new needs of the age were met were largely 
due to remarkable prescience and grasp of fundamental 
principles on the part of a few men, statesmen, scholars, 
or the enlightened possessors of great fortunes, rather 
than to popular appreciation of them. Ever since 1857, 
Professor William Barton Eogers, formerly of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia and then of Boston, had been urging 
upon the citizens and the legislators of Massachusetts 



90 TECHNOLOQICAL EDUCATION. 

his plans for the foundation of a comprehensive school 
of science and technology/ On April 10, 1861, four 
days before the firing on Sumter, the Legislature of 
Massachusetts gave effect to these plans by the incor- 
poration of such an institution, of which Dr. Rogers be- 
came the first president. In the subsequent develop- 
ment of this, the first separate and complete college of 
the modern type, the plans of its great founder were 
carried out with scarcely an appreciable modification. 
Even to-day, thirty years later, with twelve hundred stu- 
dents, one hundred and fifty teachers, and a group of 
large buildings crowded with powerful and delicate en- 
ginery, machinery, and apparatus, there is scarcely a 
feature which did not clearly appear in the memorial 
that Dr. Rogers addressed to the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature in 1857. At New Haven, that prince of public 
benefactors, Joseph E. Sheffield, in a noble and enlight- 
ened public spirit, provided the means by which the 
small and feeble scientific department of Yale became 
the important, and, — though nominally attached to the 
University, — the substantially distinct and independent 
college of science which will bear the name of its 
founder down to remotest ages. Congress, too, under 
the leadership of Senator Morrill, of Vermont, by an Act 
of the year 1862, made liberal grants of public lands 
for the endowment, in each state and territory, of at 
least one college, which, though, in the public estima- 
tion at least, primarily intended for the encouragement 
' See Life and Letters of William Barton Rogers ; 2 v., Boston, 1897. 



TECHNOLOOIGAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 91 

of agriculture, was yet to be charged with the develop- 
ment of the mechanic arts. Subsequent Acts of Con- 
gress have provided for still further grants to the col- 
leges established under the Act of 1862 and for the 
endowment of agricultural experiment stations. 

It is not needful to tell here the story of the rapid de- 
velopment of the modem college in America. To-day 
more than one hundred institutions, separate colleges or 
departments of universities, are offering the instruc- 
tion in applied science which, less than forty years 
ago, was given, upon a small scale, in the few schools 
or departments of universities that I have named. 
The students of these schools, even their yearly 
graduates, are numbered by the thousand. What 
the new colleges have done for the arts and indus- 
tries of the United States time will fail to tell. 
Not a branch of industry, not a transportation line 
in all the land, but has profited by the work of in- 
struction and investigation carried on in them. There 
are to-day large manufactories whose entire profit is de- 
rived from a single one of the waste products which for- 
merly found their way down the canals into the river, or 
were thrown unregarded into useless heaps behind the 
works. It is not extravagant to say that much of the 
industrial history of our time would never have been 
written but for the schools of applied science, because 
the things we are now proud to record would then not 
have taken place. 

It is not, however, of the industrial and strictly tech- 



92 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

nical, but of the proper educational work of these insti- 
tutions that I desire to speak at this time. The modem 
schools of science and technology differ from the few 
which antedated the war in that, speaking generally, 
they assume responsibility for the intellectual develop- 
ment of their pupils, using the technical applications of 
science, not merely, or even mainly, with reference to 
their subsequent industrial uses, but with reference to 
their effect in the training of mind and in the molding 
of character. It is unquestionably true that some of 
these institutions, in their zeal for results immediately 
useful, at first made their courses too narrow and neg- 
lected those liberal studies and exercises which are 
essential to any complete and harmonious scheme of edu- 
cation. In instances, this error has already been cor- 
rected; and the tendency is now in the direction of put- 
ting these institutions in line with the best results of 
pedagogical thinking and experience. I do not hesitate 
to say that the product of these schools, in mind and 
manhood, in intellect and character, is not a whit in- 
ferior, in essential worth, to that of the traditional col- 
leges. Altogether, in addition to what may be claimed 
for these institutions in the way of promoting the 
industrial development of the nation, we may safely 
assert that they have come to form a most important 
part of the proper educational system of the country; 
that they are doing a work in the intellectual and moral 
development of our people, and are making a contribu- 
tion to the manhood and citizenship of the country which 



TECHNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 93 

is not surpassed, if indeed it be equaled, by tliat of the 
classical colleges. [Here follows substantially what 
appears in the address on The Rise and Importance of 
Applied Science in American Education, p. 21 et seq., 
ante.~\ 

During the past few years the older colleges have, in- 
deed, been enriching and diversifying their curriculums 
by the introduction and extension of science study, at 
the expense of exercises which they once declared abso- 
lutely essential to a liberal education; but we still hold 
that in the technical applications of the sciences the 
new colleges have an agency and instrumentality of 
special educational efficiency. The earnestness of study, 
the directness and continuity of attention, the zeal and 
enthusiasm of work, which arise from the immediate 
contemplation and pursuit of useful arts, do not merely 
secure a more perfect mastery of the principles of 
science; they of themselves constitute an educational 
force which every teacher in such a school recognizes 
with delight, but which, in colleges of the old type, gen- 
erally characterizes only the gifted scholar. To the 
sincerity of purpose and the intellectual honesty which 
are bred in the laboratory of chemistry, physics, and 
mechanics, in marked contrast to the dangerous tenden- 
cies to plausibility, sophistry, and self-delusion which 
insidiously beset the pursuit of philosophy, dialectics, 
and rhetoric, is added, in the school of technology, a 
strong and almost overpowering impulse toward study 
and research, which has already, in spite of traditional 



94 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

prejudices, caused these institutions to be recognized as 
of the highest educational character by many of the best 
thinkers and teachers of our land. 

Such was the origin of the modem school of science 
and technology in the United States. In his most radi- 
cal mood, President Wayland contemplated no such 
development. Indeed, it was of the essence of his argu- 
ment that the work he proposed should be done by exist- 
ing colleges of the traditional type. One of his pleas for 
the prompt acceptance of this mission was that, other- 
Avise, institutions would come into being to do the work 
which the colleges declined, thus, according to his prog- 
nostication, increasing the competition for students, al- 
ready too severe, and still further subdividing the body 
of possible scholars. In the report from which I have 
quoted. President AVayland particularly referi'ed to in- 
cipient movements, both in Massachusetts and in New 
York, for the establishment of agricultural colleges. It 
was this which he desired to see the existing colleges 
head off by enlarging, eni'iching, and diversifying their 
curriculum, so as to provide for the many and varied 
needs of modern life. 

We may hold that the separate and distinct schools of 
science and technology were brought into existence by 
the tardiness and reluctance of the teachers and gov- 
ernors of tlie old-fashioned colleges, in modifying their 
courses of study to suit tlie conditions of the age ; or that 
it was in the nature of the case that this should come 
about, and that, no matter how promptly and how liber- 



TECHNOLOOICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 95 

ally the colleges might have introduced, between 1850 
and 1860, the sciences into their curriculum, or how ear- 
nestly and intelligently they might have sought to adapt 
their instruction to the wants of the time, the new col- 
leges would still have come into being. In either case 
we have to note the strildng and significant fact that the 
anticipated effect which President Wayland so much 
deprecated, of still further increasing a competition 
already too severe, and still further dividing up a pa- 
tronage already too small, has not followed. On the 
contrary, while the new schools and institutions have 
exhibited a wonderful gi'owth, and have done an edu- 
cational work which, alike as to quantity and quality, 
has been most remarkable, the older colleges have not 
suffered in the least from their competition. Adapting 
themselves to the changed conditions, relaxing much of 
the severity with which certain particular studies were 
once insisted upon as of the very essentials of a liberal 
education, freely introducing courses in pure science, 
they have not only much more than held their ovn\ in 
numbers, during the past thirty years, but have largely 
increased both the range of their work and the degree of 
their educational efficiency. 

Such a result, though paradoxical, contains no deep 
mystery. Profound and sagacious as President Way- 
land was, his anxiety lest a new type of school should 
arise to diminish the attendance upon the existing col- 
leges shows that there was at least one law of social and 
industrial economy which he had not apprehended. 



96 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

What needs to "be said is, not that the new colleges failed 
to cut into the patronage of the older institutions, as 
something which it was reasonably to be expected they 
would do; but that the appearance of the new type of 
schools, appealing to new interests, using new methods, 
applying themselves to objects not before considered, so 
stimulated and strengthened the total educational im- 
jDulse throughout the country as not only to secure for 
themselves an ample support and patronage, but also to 
give fresh life and activity to the older colleges, which 
had sunk into routine, tradition, and imitation. I will 
not say that the men who founded the new colleges saved 
the old — that might be claiming too much ; but I believe 
that no student of American education will question 
that the new colleges had an immense influence in 
quickening the life of the old and in promoting the 
searching reforms from within which render them to- 
day so much more active and efficient than in any pre- 
vious stage of their existence. 

In social and industrial economy there is no greater 
fallacy than that of a predetermined dividend. As an 
economist, I have all my life been fighting it in the de- 
partment of labor and wages. Here, in the educational 
history of the past fifty years, we get another striking 
view of the fallacy of this notion. It is ordinarily said 
that demand creates supply ; and this is true throughout 
the lower ranges of life. In the matter of food and fuel 
and clothing, and, indeed, in regard to all things where 
human wants have become fixed and settled, we have no 



TECHNOLOOICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 97 

occasion to worry ourselves about the supply. Demand 
will take care of that. Civilization may be trusted to 
hold on to whatever advances it has once fully and fairly 
made, whether in material or in other directions. The 
conscious wants of humanity will suffice to secure the due 
supply without any organized public or private effort 
other than that originating in personal interest. But in 
all things high and fine, and generally, also, in every ad- 
vance which material civilization is to make, there must 
be a better intelligence than that of the market, which 
shall apprehend not what men want, but what they 
ought to want. There must be disinterested efforts on 
the part of the natural leaders of society which shall 
secure, at whatever sacrifice, such a demonstration of the 
merits and advantages of the yet unknown thing, such a 
supply of the new good, as shall create the demand for it. 
It will not be until that want has been fairly and fully 
wrought into the public consciousness, that the supply 
may thereafter be left to take care of itself. The 
American schools of science and technology illustrate in 
an eminent degree the law of human progress which has 
just been stated. They themselves came into existence, 
not in obedience to a conscious popular demand for 
them, but by reason of the foresight, the unselfish devo- 
tion, and the strenuous self-sacrificing endeavors of a 
few men who were in advance of their times; and, hav- 
ing thus come into existence, they have, through their 
whole course, freely illustrated the principle that, in 
certain classes of things, supply must create demand. It 



98 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

was by the graduation from colleges of science and 
technology of men thoroughly prepared to do the work 
in chemistry, physics, mechanics, and engineering, 
which the country needed to have done, that the coun- 
try came to be conscious of that need. We have to-day 
thousands of chemists, electricians, mechanicians, and 
engineers engaged in developing the marvelous natural 
resources of our country and in carrying on its giant in- 
dustries. Not because there was, thirty, twenty, or ten 
years ago, any such conscious demand for those services 
as would have justified so many young men in preparing 
themselves for that work, but because the schools of 
science and technology began to send out, first, scores; 
then, hundreds; and afterwards, thousands of well edu- 
cated and thoroughly trained young men, who, finding 
their way — it might even be said forcing their way — 
into employment here, there, and anywhere, at what- 
ever scale of initial compensation, in whatever capacity, 
— sometimes, in the beginning, doing the work of day 
laborers, — demonstrated to reluctant and prejudiced 
minds their capability of usefulness. In this case as in 
so many others, demand has been created by first fur- 
nishing the supply, by showing what young men prop- 
erly educated and highly trained can do in organizing 
and directing the forces of American industry. 

So great a change, as has thus been traced, among the 
higher institutions of learning in the United States could 
not take place without producing very marked effects 
upon the scheme of secondary education, and even upon 



TECnNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 99 

the courses of the grammar school. The usefulness of 
the college of science and technology, both from the 
practical and from the educational point of view, has 
passed beyond dispute. Not only its own work, but the 
large concessions in the direction of scientific study 
which are so rapidly being made by the classical col- 
leges, render it impossible for any responsible person to 
denounce, or even to deprecate, the movement which has 
been in such rapid progress during the past thirty years, 
though criticism of general methods and of special exer- 
cises will long be appropriate and welcome. But the 
work of modernizing the secondary school, so that it 
shall more closely meet present needs, has yet to be ac- 
complished. Much has already been done; but nearly 
all that has been done remains tentative, both in theory 
and in practice. The subject remains to be thought out 
and wrought out; more, perhaps, to be wrought out, by 
trial and experiment, than to be thought out. 

One thing, at least, I think we may say. The so- 
called mechanic arts high school, whether supported 
by the city or maintained by private endowment, has 
already assumed, in some degree, its definite shape. 
Doubtless there will be changes in its curriculum. The 
proportions in which shopwork, drawing, and geometry 
shall be joined, in the scheme of instruction, with gram- 
mar, history, the modern languages, and geography, 
have as yet been only rudely determined; while within 
each of the newer courses of study a great deal has to 
be learned regarding the most efiFective methods to be 



100 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

employed. But enougli has already been shown fully 
to convince my own mind that this addition to the 
American system of education is to be a permanent and 
important one. Moreover, I feel confident that we 
shall Avitness here another exemplification of the prin- 
ciple which was noted in regard to the effect upon the 
attendance of the older colleges produced by the estab- 
lishment of the newer. I believe it will appear that the 
mechanic arts high schools do not, in the large result, 
take at all from the existing classical and English high 
schools. On the contrary, I hope to see the new schools 
not only create a constituency of their own, but even 
communicate an impulse throughout the whole high 
school system not unlike that communicated to the whole 
college system by the colleges of science and technology. 
If this result shall be attained it will be most fortunate. 
The present condition of things, where in some com- 
munities not more than ten, and in other communities 
not more than five, per cent, of the pupils of the gram- 
mar schools go forward into the secondary schools, is not 
one to be viewed with complacency. It certainly seems 
as if the high schools had fallen out of an intimate adap- 
tation to the wants of modern life, into the stage of 
routine, tradition, and imitation, as did the colleges of 
the United States before the period to which President 
Wayland's report related. I cannot but cherish the 
hope that not only will the mechanic arts high schools 
gather within their walls tens of thousands of youth 
whose parents would otherwise have taken them out of 



TECHNOLOOICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 101 

school, at fourteen years of age, to begin their work in 
life without any adequate training or equipment, but 
that the very establishment of these schools will have an 
effect largely to increase the attendance upon the tradi- 
tional high school. That the study of chemistry and 
physics will more and more extend through the sev- 
eral years of the high school, whether the Latin school, 
or the English high school, or the mechanic arts high 
school, I regard as certain. In addition to the remark- 
able virtue which these studies possess from a purely 
educational point of view, in addition to all the advan- 
tages which attend their pursuit with reference to higher 
work, whether in science or in technology, there is one 
important consideration which favors their adoption as 
no inconsiderable part of the curriculum of all secondary 
schools. This consideration lies in the fact that, peda- 
gogically speaking, elementary chemistry and elemen- 
tary physics are, perhaps, the two subjects which are most 
easily taught; which, with moderate attention and 
fidelity, are best taught, even though the teacher be not 
gifted. 

In a certain sense and to a considerable degree they 
teach themselves. I am not unmindful of the great 
differences which exist in the progress of the youthful 
pupil in chemistry or physics, according as his teacher is 
one who possesses natural and acquired gifts of instruc- 
tion, or is one whose chief qualification is that he, him- 
self, knows his subject well. But I still hold to the 
opinion that of all the subjects of instruction known to 



102 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

the high school curriculum, these are the two which are 
least dependent upon rare powers of instruction in the 
teacher. Compare them, in this respect, with Latin, or 
Greek, or history, or even, I may say, with geography. 
It may not be flattering to the teaching profession to 
give prominence to such a consideration; but we are 
bound to recognize the fact that, with a very large ma- 
jority of the members of that profession, as they are at 
present educated, equipped, and called into service, the 
main qualification which we see in them is that they 
fairly well understand the subjects they are to teach and 
are earnestly desirous of doing justice to their pupils. 
In such a situation it is no small advantage that in so 
large a degree chemistry and physics do their own teach- 
ing, drawing pupils on, naturally and almost irresistibly, 
from experiment to experiment, from one stage of at- 
tainment to another. 

The problem of introducing science studies and prac- 
tical exercises into the grammar schools is far more diffi- 
cult. It is a matter in respect to which we have made 
very little progress during the past ten or fifteen years, 
although much thought and attention have been given 
to the subject by some of the most accomplished educa- 
tors of our country. I shall not attempt to deal with 
the question of methods at this time. The subject is too 
large and complicated. JSTor do I feel myself qualified 
to offer suggestions of value toward the solution of the 
problem. I shall confine myself to presenting the con- 
siderations which draw my own mind to the conclusion 



TECHNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 103 

that an extensive introduction of the objective study of 
concrete things and of hand and tool work of one kind 
or another, into all the grades of the grammar school, 
is of great importance, both for the fullest and happiest 
development of the powers of the pupils and for the 
best social and industrial results in their after-life. 

[President "Walker then proceeds to develop these 
considerations upon lines similar to those followed in 
the address upon Industrial Education. See pp. 141 
to 145 infra.'] 

I have hurriedly reviewed the several grades of 
schools as they are generally organized under our Ameri- 
can system of education — the college, the high school, 
and the grammar school. But the present occasion calls 
sharply to our attention the coming into existence, dur- 
ing the past few years, of a new type of school, which is 
out of the ordinary line of ascent; which does not con- 
fine itself to a definite place in the educational order, but 
seeks objects of its own, and is at liberty to use all the 
agencies, instrumentalities, and methods which are ap- 
propriate thereto. The schools referred to are as yet 
few in number and are still in the experimental stage; 
but every believer in the new education must regard 
their establishment with great satisfaction, looking to 
them, not only for much positive good in the education 
and life preparation of their own pupils, but also for 
much that will be valuable in the way of suggestion, 
both as to subjects of study and as to the most effective 
methods of presenting such subjects. 



104 TECHNOLOQICAL EDUCATION. 

As examples of these new institutions may be cited 
the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, the Drexel Institute of 
Philadelphia, and that whose foundation we celebrate 
to-day. Each of these is the result of munificent bene- 
factions on the part of wealthy individuals seeking the 
public good. Each comes into the field with a " free 
hand," bound by no traditions; perfectly at liberty to 
seek the best, from whatever source ; to prove all things 
and to hold fast to that which is found good; ready, 
eager, and anxious to occupy every part of the ground 
which has been overlooked or neglected in the existing 
system of instruction, and to meet every educational 
want which has been left unsatisfied. These schools 
call themselves neither preparatory schools, nor high 
schools, nor colleges. They recognize no responsibility 
to the established order. They purpose to make them- 
selves; not to be fitted into a place in a system. It fol- 
lows from this that much of their work is at present ex- 
perimental; that their schemes are large and somewhat 
vague; and that their ultimate form is not easy to con- 
jecture. Herein is one of the chief reasons for the hope 
of their future usefulness. Every friend of education 
must watch their course with interest, and study their 
programmes and their catalogues to see from time to 
time what they shall undertake and what they shall 
drop; in which direction they shall grow and in which 
other directions they shall, if not decline, at least not 
progress or not progress rapidly. 

The advantages which I am sanguine enough to an- 



TECHNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 105 

ticipate from the establishment of schools of the new 
type are three : 

First, as the result of their freedom from obligation to 
the general system of education, they not only will be 
at liberty, but they will be strongly impelled to search 
out those real needs of the American people in the mat- 
ter of education which are at present unsupplied. We 
must not presume that such needs, even of the most im- 
perative character, may not exist. The long paragraphs 
from the report of Dr. Wayland, in 1850, strikingly 
show how far a system of public instruction, long estab- 
lished, highly appreciated, even venerated and regarded 
as above criticism, may be grossly inadequate to the de- 
mands of a given time. In the present stage of social 
and industrial change, change almost bewildering in the 
rapidity of its movement and in the extent of the fields 
over which it is taking place, it is most reasonable to be- 
lieve that great gaps exist between the public needs and 
the accomplished or even attempted supply of those 
needs by the existing institutions of learning, even in- 
cluding the schools of science and technology, as devel- 
oped during the past thirty years. If such be the case, 
and it would be most unreasonable to deny that it is 
highly probable, the " free hand " of which I have 
spoken, in connection with the schools of the type we are 
considering, must be an important condition of success- 
ful effort to supplement the American system of in- 
struction. To " cut and fit and try on " is their special 
mission; and no one who takes this view of the subject 



106 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

can fail to regard it as most undesirable that the gov- 
ernors and teachei's of these schools should allow them 
to be early crystallized into definite forms. It is essen- 
tial to this function, as I conceive it, that they should 
remain largely in a state of flux ; open to all impressions ; 
mobile under all influences; not too soon assuming that 
they have found their ultimate resting place and have 
taken on their distinctive character. 

Secondly, it seems to me reasonable that we should 
look to the schools of the new type for continuous ex- 
perimentation in regard to specific courses of instruc- 
tion and technical means and methods of teaching, the 
benefit of which shall be chiefly acquired by other insti- 
tutions. The same " free hand " which enables these 
schools to take up any line of work which seems at 
present to be inadequately performed, to enter any field 
which appears not to be covered by existing agencies, 
will enable them to exercise the largest liberty and 
activity in developing the details of each and every sub- 
ject to which they may apply themselves. It scarcely 
needs to be said that such freedom brings with it peculiar 
dangers. A school which belongs to a system and is 
fitted into a place; which, at the one end, takes its pupils 
from lower schools, and at the other delivers its gradu- 
ates to higher institutions, subject to their examination 
and criticism, cannot go far or rapidly astray. But a 
school which has entire liberty to choose its own field of 
work and to adapt its own methods, to cut and fit and 
try on, must depend upon its own boards of instruction 



TECHNOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 107 

and management properly to temper enterprise, courage, 
and intellectual curiosity with wholesome conservatism 
and sound practical sense. 

Thirdly, the last special advantage which I will indi- 
cate, — though doubtless there are others, — as reasonably 
to be expected from the establishment of schools of the 
new type, is the training of teachers to conduct the prac- 
tical studies and exercises so rapidly making their way 
into the secondary schools of our land, and which may 
be expected soon to be introduced into our superior 
grammar schools. I am not ignorant of the fact that a 
few of the traditional normal schools of our country 
have shown great liberality and much intelligence in 
undertaking to prepare their pupils to give instruction 
in these branches. I recognize the excellent work of 
the New York J^Tormal School in undertaking to prepare 
teachers of the domestic and the mechanic arts for the 
public schools. But all that can be done in this direc- 
tion will not be too much. Indeed, the extension of the 
new subjects of instruction has, from the first, been 
greatly hampered by the lack of competent instructors. 
Moreover, I cannot but think that from schools of this 
type will go forth many teachers better prepared to con- 
tribute to the development of the theory and practice of 
the new profession than the graduates of the traditional 
normal school with a little of the mechanic arts added, 
or even than the graduates of a normal school specific- 
ally and solely directed to the training of teachers for 
that work. 



108 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

With these words I close this already too long pro- 
tracted address. I congratulate the citizens of Potsdam 
that their home has been made the seat of an institu- 
tion of this character, established by the munificence of 
three noble women who recognize the obligation which 
wealth imposes, and whose eyes have been anointed to 
see that the best thing about money is its power of doing 
good to others. I congratulate the governors and 
teachers of this Institute upon the opportunities which 
have been opened to them to make a special and impor- 
tant contribution, not only to the welfare of hundreds 
and thousands of future pupils of their own, but to the 
philosophy of education throughout our land. Just as 
the early schools of technology gave to the classical col- 
leges the laboratory of general physics and the labora- 
tory of general chemistry, now regarded as essential and 
even indispensable in every school of liberal learning, so 
here at Potsdam may be developed and -wrought out 
agents and instrumentalities of instruction, courses of 
study, methods of teaching, which in another generation 
shall be applied to the training of millions of American 
youth. 



THE PROBLEM OF "ENGLISH" IN 
SCHOOLS OF TECHNOLOGY 



J. An Extract prom thb Report op the President 
OP THE Massachusetts Institute op Technology fob 
THE Year 1890. 

II. A Communication to the Department of English 
OF THE Massachusetts Institute op Technology. 



THE PEOBLEM OF " ENGLISH " IN SCHOOLS OF 
TECHNOLOGY. 

I. 

The problem of giving instruction in English, to the 
"best effect, to students of scientific and technical schools, 
is a very interesting one. The teacher who shall solve 
it will make a contribution to the philosophy of educa- 
tion which will be of great value, inasmuch as the num- 
ber of these schools is large, and is rapidly increasing. 
The instruction given in English in the classical colleges 
is, by general admission, very unsatisfactory; but, at 
least, it stands related to the fact that the pupils have a 
comparatively large vocabulary, derived from long- 
continued work in language; that they have made a 
special study of etymology; that they have become fa- 
miliar with the figures of rhetoric through the Latin and 
the Greek, and that they have for years been exercised 
upon subtile distinctions, alike in language-study and in 
philosophy. Directly to introduce the methods of Eng- 
lish instruction, as practiced in our colleges, into a scien- 
tific school, would be to invite failure. Here the pupils 
have had little language-study; they are generally un- 
familiar with the etymology of the words they use; they 
have little ingenuity in expression, and, indeed, but 
slight disposition to make much of expression. For 



112 TECHNOLOQICAL EDUCATION. 

pupils of this class, the methods that would be proper 
and useful in a college must be modified in no incon- 
siderable degree if the highest success is to be obtained. 

I have spoken of the deficiencies of the student of 
science, as compared with the student of the classics, of 
metaphysics, and of rhetoric, so far as the familiar col- 
lege work in English is concerned. But it must not be 
thought that the account is all on one side. The scien- 
tific student has, to compensate for these deficiencies, 
certain mental qualities which may be made use of to 
good effect in training him to use his own language in 
statement, in narrative, in argument, or in the writing 
of personal letters and professional reports. The prob- 
lem in pedagogics which I spoke of has reference to the 
best means of making use of those qualities in the teach- 
ing of English. 

The student of natural and physical science has cer- 
tain deficiencies in language which have been fairly ac- 
knowledged ; but he has an immense advantage in a far 
greater clearness and vividness in the formation of men- 
tal images, and a much stronger grasp upon his concep- 
tions. Trained, day by day and year by year, in the 
objective study of concrete things, he sees nothing 
vaguely; the images he forms are definite and distinct; 
what he knows, he knows perfectly. If fine writing 
be the end in view, these mental characteristics may or 
may not be advantageous; but for the purposes of 
simple, straightforward, manly expression, whether in 
description, in exposition, in narrative, in argument, or 



THE PROBLEM OF " ENGLISH." 113 

in business correspondence, they are a source of great 
power. Such a student will still need much study and 
practice in the use of language to save him from com- 
mitting numberless solecisms and to give him the com- 
pletest use of his own powers of expression; but he is, 
taken altogether, a student of English not a whit less 
promising than his fellow in the classical college. IS^ay, 
the advantage indicated extends from the thinking to 
the speaking or the writing, since every word which is 
seen to contain a physical image, as so many words do, 
and indeed as nearly all words in their beginning did, 
means more to a student of science than to a student of 
language, literature, and philosophy. 

II. 

The problem of dealing with college students who 
are awkward, weak, or inaccurate — one, or it may be all 
of these — in " English," that is, in conversation, in com- 
position, in penmanship, and in spelling, is a difficult one 
in classical colleges. It is still more so in a school like 
this [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology], where 
the amount of time and effort which, at the best, can be 
devoted to instruction in these branches is very closely 
restricted. 

To begin with, it may be said that the sort of teach- 
ing which alone can help this class of students, which 
alone can save them from grave injury to their social 
and professional character and standing, does not really 
belong to the college. It is in the earlier schools — if in 



114 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

school at all — that the pupil should acquire ease, direct- 
ness, simplicity, and accuracy of expression — whether 
in statement or in illustration, whether in narrative or 
in argument. If a child passes from the grammar 
school into the high school slow, blundering, and awk- 
ward in expression, heedless in his writing, inaccurate 
in spelling, he can, indeed, be helped in a measure to 
overcome his defects and infirmities, by a great deal of 
attention and eifort on the part of his teachers; but it 
will require — let us say — three times as much of that 
effort and attention to effect any degree of improvement 
in these particulars as would have been needed to bring 
about the same result in the grammar school. And, 
again, if the pupil goes on from the high school into the 
college still suffering from defects and infirmities re- 
garding expression, it will require — again let us say — 
three times as much effort and attention on the part of 
his teacher there to give him anything like adequate 
power in arranging his ideas with reference to their ex- 
pression, in controlling his thoughts while passing down 
the flume to the wheel, and in uttering them easily, 
clearly, connectedly, accurately, as would have been re- 
quired to effect this training in the high school. In 
other words, when a college is called upon to teach and 
to train a pupil so that he shall not prejudice himself 
through all the rest of his life, socially and profession- 
ally, by blundering, awkward, obscure, and inaccurate 
expression, it is in fact required to do something which 
does not belong to the college at all, and the dijQ&culties 



THE PROBLEM OF " ENGLISH." 115 

of which have been aggravated many-fold by neglect in 
earlier years. For a college to impart the ability to 
write simple, plain, straightforward, agreeable English 
is as much more difficult than would have been the same 
task in respect to the same pupil in the grammar school, 
as is the correction of a grievous fault in the limbs of a 
mature man, compared with the correction of the same 
fault in the limbs of a growing child. 

But the fact that this kind of work does not properly 
belong to the college at all constitutes no reason why, 
in the face of neglect by the lower schools, the college 
should not take it up, for the sake of otherwise good and 
successful scholars who have the promise of professional 
and social usefulness. The faculty of a school like our 
own cannot content themselves with saying that this 
pupil or that ought to have acquired his " English " be- 
fore coming hither; and that they will not do anything 
to meet the lamentable fact that, in all matters concern- 
ing the arrangement and expression of his thoughts for 
writing or for speaking, he is as woeful a case of de- 
formity, obliquity, and perversion as ever was brought 
into the operating room of a hospital. Little as that 
task is properly chargeable upon the teachers of an in- 
stitution of such a grade, it is still true that many deserv- 
ing young men who, as students of science and in 
technical work, are strong, clear-headed, and sensible, 
and who may confidently be relied upon to do excellent 
work in a scientific profession, will suffer deep and 
irreparable injury by reason of deficiencies and mistakes 



116 TECHNOLOQIGAL EDUCATION. 

in expression and representation, unless they are helped 
in this matter, l^ot only will they fail to do justice to 
their scientific conceptions, to the results of their prac- 
tical investigations, to the validity of their economic 
proposals, but they will be at a continual disadvantage in 
the view of their employers and in the public mind, in 
comparison with men who, as thinkers or workers, may 
be miles below them. It is true, and we have to accept 
the fact, that a monstrously disproportionate value is at- 
tached to certain matters of expression, as for example, 
spelling, A man may be learned, fertile in ideas, rich 
in imagery, even eloquent in speech, and yet a mistake 
in spelling will make him an object of ridicule by men 
who have not a hundredth part his accomplishments and 
acquirements. A man may not know three facts in hu- 
man history, much less have an idea regarding any one 
of them, and yet not be so much at a disadvantage in 
consequence, as would a learned and able scholar and 
thinker who sometimes misspelled a word. !Now, it is 
not the business of the colleges to convert public opinion 
to a true relative appreciation of spelling in comparison 
with other gifts and accomplishments, but to accept the 
opinion and present view of society on that point, and, 
by such opportunities as they may have at command, to 
endeavor to save otherwise promising pupils from a 
grave disadvantage, both professional and social. 

What, then, may the technical and scientific school, 
where only a small portion of time can possibly be given 
to English studies, do for those students who have come 



THE PROBLEM OF ' ' ENGLISH. " 117 

up from the high schools prepared in the main to carry 
on their college work satisfactorily, perhaps with marked 
success, and yet grossly deficient and defective in the 
matter of which we have been speaking? We vnll 
assume that some portion of time is given in the college 
to the instruction of the whole body of students in Eng- 
lish. Shall the view which has been presented above of 
the very great importance of this matter to the less for- 
tunate members of the class — English-wise — and the 
acknowledgment by the faculty of a certain degree of 
responsibility in the case, lead to an effort to increase the 
time devoted to English by all the students of the suc- 
cessive classes? or shall those who are notably deficient 
in the respects indicated be constituted a separate body, 
for additional, and as far as possible, individual treat- 
ment? As to the first suggestion, it may at once be said 
that a three-fold increase of the time now devoted at the 
Institute of Technology to class-work in English would 
not meet the case; and, of course, any such increase is 
out of the question. Indeed, I am much disposed to 
think that no amount of additional class-work would 
have the result, in any large degree, of curing the defects 
and supplying the deficiencies of which we have been 
speaking. For students suffering from this infirmity, 
class-room work hardly hits the mark at all, though it 
may be of great value to those who have a certain nat- 
ural competency in English and have been well trained 
and under good influences, in this respect, at home and 
in the preparatory schools. Even if it were possible 



118 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

largely to increase the amount of time given to English 
work, it would be better to adopt the alternative sugges- 
tion and to look upon all students who are notably defi- 
cient in this particular as constituting a class for distinct 
and, as far as possible, individual treatment. Without 
going into the philosophy of the subject, I beg to be 
permitted to outline a scheme which, it seems to me, 
might be adopted to good advantage by the English de- 
partment, with the sanction of the faculty. 

(1) In the first place, there should be made up dur- 
ing the first term in the English department, as the 
result of entrance examinations, of department work in 
composition, and of the inspection of matter written in 
the course of the students' ordinary work in other de- 
partments, a " black list," though not a list so called, on 
which should be found the names of all students who 
show marked deficiency in the respects indicated. The 
value of such a list would greatly depend upon its being 
made up, not only with care, but conservatively. If 
students were liable to be put upon the list merely by 
reason of a slip or two, occurring in simple carelessness 
or haste, the purposes of the system would be practically 
defeated. Only those names should go upon the list 
which represent students suffering from inveterate weak- 
nesses or disorders in thinking and writing. 

(2) Each student thus put upon the list, — which I 
shall continue for the purposes of the present discussion 
to call the " black list," though of course such a title 
would be impossible in the actual working of the scheme, 



TEE PROBLEM OF •'ENGLISH." 119 

— should be informed by the head of the English de- 
partment, in the most friendly and kindly way, that 
attention has been called to certain marked defects, defi- 
ciencies, and weaknesses on his English side. This com- 
munication should go on to explain how much of social 
and even of professional annoyance and embarrassment 
may be suffered from this source. The student should 
then be advised to give his thought seriously to the mat- 
ter, trying for himself to rectify the tendency to make 
mistakes or to write or speak awkwardly or blunder- 
ingly. He would naturally be advised always to look 
over his own letters and papers after writing them — a 
matter in respect to which most young men are very 
much at fault. Certain books would perhaps be com- 
mended to him. The advantage of such a communica- 
tion would be found largely in the fact that the evil 
tendencies referred to are due, in many cases, to thought- 
lessness or carelessness. Just as hosts of boys and girls 
who, in the course of becoming round-shouldered and 
slouching in bearing and carriage, have, simply by 
being nagged about it by parents and brothers and sis- 
ters, been brought into almost painful uprightness 
and rectangularity, so many students need only to have 
the matter brought sharply to their attention and held 
strongly before it, to induce efforts on their part which 
would suffice to secure good results. With the forma- 
tion of the " black list," and with such notices of warn- 
ing and advice to the individual students concerned, I 
would have nothing more done during the first year, be- 



120 TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 

yond what miglit come through a cordial invitation to 
students to consult tlieir teachers freely. 

(3) At the end of the first year, I would have the 
English department carefully revise the " black list," 
and send out to each person who had received the pre- 
vious notice, one or the other of two forms of communi- 
cation. In one the student might be encouraged, not 
too much, by the information that his work had shown 
improvement; but he should be advised very earnestly 
to make further progress in this direction, especially by 
reading books which have a peculiar ease and felicity of 
expression, and in some considerable measure, by read- 
ing such books aloud, or by hearing them read aloud by 
others. I am convinced that the education of the ear is 
too much neglected in the modem school. The other 
form of communication referred to might be sent to 
those students who had not made an appreciable degree 
of progTess in correcting their faults or in supplying 
their deficiencies. This letter should be kind in tone; 
but it should very strongly set forth the disadvantages 
which the young men will inevitably suffer, both socially 
and professionally, unless they rid themselves of their 
limitations, their weaknesses, and their positive defects 
in the matter of writing and speaking. The communi- 
cation might go on to say that this warning, given at the 
beginning of the summer vacation, was intended to sug- 
gest to them the importance of making strenuous efforts 
to that end during the three or four months following. 
Attendance on a summer school, if practicable, should 



THE PROBLEM OF ''ENGLISH." 121 

be recommended. Rules and prescriptions suitable to 
the general case of such students might be given. In 
the preparation of these, the teachers of English at the 
Institute of Technology would have an opportunity to 
achieve great distinction, since the field is largely virgin 
soil. This communication might close with the state- 
ment that, unless the course of the second year should 
show a marked improvement in the respect under con- 
sideration, the student would at the end be formally 
*' conditioned " in English and would thereupon be re- 
quired to take a considerable body of studies and exer- 
cises, under direction and supervision, and as a purely 
extra thing, without which he could not further attend 
as a regular student in the Institute. Such a condition, 
for example, might require attendance upon a summer 
course especially conducted for students of this class, in 
which attention would be principally given to weak- 
nesses, and to defects and mistakes of expression. The 
condition imposed should not be a slight one, and should 
be remorselessly exacted. The mere fact of placing so 
much importance upon this matter, at the middle of the 
college course, would have a salutary effect in arousing 
the pupils' attention and interest in the matter; while 
some weeks of hard work under severe criticism could 
not fail to have a certain positive result for good, neces- 
sarily much greater in the case of some students than of 
others. 

(4) Having done so much as has been indicated, it 
seems to me that the faculty of the Institute, as a body, 



122 TECHNOLOOIGAL EDUCATION. 

might thereafter regard themselves as discharged of re- 
sponsibility in this matter, though the English depart- 
ment will, of course, continually strive to improve the 
character of the students' work through class exercises 
and individual conferences, and through criticism of 
papers prepared in the course of professional study. I 
would refuse the degree of the Institute, on account of 
deficiencies or defects in English, to no man who was in 
all other respects well qualified for a creditable profes- 
sional career, I would recognize the fact that there are 
some persons who are deaf, dumb, and blind on this side 
of their minds and yet are capable of excellent work as 
scholars, as thinkers, and as men engaged in professional 
practice. All the lecturing in the world will do very 
little for this insoluble residue, and they must go into the 
world bearing this burden for life, just as they would 
bear a physical infirmity which was not to be cured. 

Of course, all the foregoing should be only in the 
nature of a supplement to the unceasing efforts of the 
faculty of the Institute, and especially of the teachers 
of English, to raise the standard of the high schools, and, 
through them, of the grammar schools, in the respect 
under consideration. While, in the spirit of humanity, 
dealing as well as possible with the bad surgical cases 
sent up to college, we should see to it, so far as lies in 
us, that the earlier schools give orthopedic treatment in 
all cases of deformity or weakness, at the stage when 
these can be dealt with most easily and effectively. 



MANUAL EDUCATION 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 

1884 



Address before the American Social Science As- 
sociation, September 9, 1884. From the Journal of 
Social Science, No. 19. 



INDUSTEIAL EDUCATION. 

In the active discussion now in progress concerning 
Industrial Education, that term is used in such widely 
different senses as to require that a paper treating of this 
theme should begin with a definition. With a view to 
this, I offer the following classification of the schools 
which undertake what is by one person or another under- 
stood to be industrial education. 

First, we have the schools of applied science and tech- 
nology, whose purpose is to train the engineer, the archi- 
tect, the geologist, the chemist, the metallurgist, for the 
work of their several professions. These schools do not 
aim to educate the men who are to do the manual work 
of modem industry. In the main, they do not even aim 
to educate the men who are to oversee and educate the 
work of others — the men, that is, who are to act as super- 
intendents of labor. It is the function of schools of 
this class to train those who shall investigate the material 
resources of the country, and shall project operations 
for the development of such resources, to be carried on 
by bodies of labor and of capital under the direction, in 
the main, of persons who have received their education 
and training in schools of a different order, or through 
practical experience in the field, the shop, and the mine. 

The distinction here rudely outlined between the per- 



126 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

son who investigates the material resources of the eoun- 
Xry, in any direction, and organizes industrial enterprises 
for the exploitation of those resources, and the per- 
son who superintends and directs the labor employed 
in such enterprises, is not, indeed, strictly maintained; 
but it exists in a general way, although a tendency to 
employ, in increasing degree, civil, mechanical, and min- 
ing engineers, chemists, and metallurgists in adminis- 
trative and executive capacities, has been observed dur- 
ing the past few years. 

The expediency of establishing schools of the class 
herein indicated is no longer a matter of debate. The 
general government and many, if not all, of the State 
governments have recognized the importance of thus 
providing for the scientific development of our indus- 
tries; and the large and increasing measure of reputation 
and financial success enjoyed by the Troy School of 
Civil Engineering, the Hoboken School of Mechanical 
Engineering, the Sheffield School of Civil and Mechan- 
ical Engineering, the Columbia School of Mining Engi- 
neering, the Boston Institute of Technology, with its 
departments of civil, mechanical, and mining engineer- 
ing, the Worcester Eree Institute of Industrial Science, 
the Chandler Scientific School and the Thayer Engineer- 
ing School, both of Dartmouth College, with a score of 
other institutions all deserving to be named were this 
the immediate subject of our paper, show that the value 
of such institutions has passed beyond challenge or cavil. 

A second and widely different class of institutions is 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 127 

found in the so-called trade schools. The purpose of 
schools of this class is to train the actual workers in in- 
dustry, and to train them, moreover, for what it is pre- 
sumed will be their individual occupations in life. In 
the main, these schools do not aim to train the overseers 
and superintendents of labor, but the individual opera- 
tives. And, in general, the work of these schools 
assumes that the particular vocation for life of the chil- 
dren who enter them is already reasonably well deter- 
mined. 

The efforts at industrial education in the States of 
Europe have commonly taken this form. The trade 
schools of Switzerland, of Holland, and of France, are 
schools in which young people are taught well-defined 
trades, generally such as are pursued in the immediate 
region where the schools are established. Thus, certain 
trade schools in Switzerland have reference to the gTeat 
watch-making industry of that country, and have it for 
their object to train pupils who, it is assumed, will, by 
almost an industrial necessity, become watchmakers. 

The third class of schools, and that to which the 
present paper will be confined, comprises those into 
which manual and mechanical instruction and training 
are introduced in greater or less degree; not, on the one 
hand, to make engineers ; not, on the other hand, for the 
purpose of training the pupil to become an operative in 
any particular branch of industry which it is presumed 
he will enter; but as a part of the general education of 
the scholar, with reference to the fuller and more sym- 



128 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

metrical development of all his faculties and powers, and 
to the promotion of his success in whatever sphere of 
labor it shall subsequently be determined he is to enter. 

It is schools of this class the establishment of which is 
at this time being especially urged, under the general 
title of Industrial Education. 

In some respects, the term " industrial education " is 
itself an unfortunate one. The term " mechanical edu- 
cation " would better express the objects of those who 
are now advocating an important modification of our 
system of instruction. But the term first referred to 
has been so widely adopted in the discussion of this sub- 
ject that it is likely to be used long after the mechanical 
education of our children and youth has passed the 
period of debate and has become incorporated in our 
public school system. 

The distinction between the trade school and the 
school of the kind last indicated, will be seen, if prop- 
erly contemplated, to be very marked. Xot only does 
the trade school assume that there is a high degree of 
probability that the pupil will enter a definite field of 
labor, for which it undertakes to prepare him; but the 
establishment of such schools undoubtedly contributes, 
in an important degree, to enhance the probability of 
that result. 

The confusion of trade education with a general me- 
chanical education has undoubtedly engendered not a 
little of the prejudice which the scheme of industrial 
education has encountered in certain quarters within the 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 129 

United States. It has been alleged that the establish- 
ment of the proposed system would be opposed to the 
sentiments of our people and to the genius of our insti- 
tutions, inasmuch as it would assume that the children 
who were to receive training were bom to a certain con- 
dition of life, and were destined to perform a certain 
industrial role. The scheme of industrial education 
has, therefore, been objected to as curtailing the glori- 
ous birthright of every American boy to become banker, 
merchant, judge, or president, as his own abilities and 
virtues may qualify him. It will appear, I think, in the 
further course of this paper, that the objection is 
founded upon a misapprehension ; and that the adoption 
of the system of education under view would not only 
not confine the choice of the pupil as to his subsequent 
mode of life, but would tend to give him an even greater 
freedom of movement and action. 

That the establishment of trade schools, in the strict 
sense of that term, has proved advantageous in many of 
the crowded communities of Europe, I entertain no 
doubt. When, by reason of the dense occupation of the 
soil and the diversification and localization of industries, 
the choice of young persons is, in fact, very closely 
limited, it is probably the part of wisdom to recognize 
that fact, to accept the situation, and to prepare the 
young as well as possible for the work which, by almost 
a moral necessity, they will be called to perform. That 
even in some communities of the United States the 
point has already been reached where the establishment 



130 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

of trade schools by private benevolence, or even by 
municipal authority, might be practically advantageous, 
I am not disposed to deny. 

In any large city whose population is chiefly, and per- 
haps almost wholly, occupied in some single and highly 
special branch of industry, the instruction of the young 
in the arts specially concerned in the prosecution of that 
industry may be deemed, not unreasonably, the dictate 
of practical wisdom. 

Yet the position of those who have opposed industrial 
education on the ground that the United States have not 
yet reached the condition which requires or justifies the 
education at the public expense and under State au- 
thority, of young children, with reference to specific 
trades, is in the main sound and just. The proper an- 
swer to this objection is, that the system of industrial 
education proposed would rather enlarge than confine 
the subsequent choice of occupations by the children of 
our public schools. 

The purpose sought by the advocates of so-called in- 
dustrial education is the training of the eye and the 
hand of the pupil, and his acquisition of those elemen- 
tary principles of physics and mechanics which underlie 
all dealings with the forces of nature and with material 
objects. 

I have spoken of the " establishment " of schools of 
industrial or mechanical education. Yet, in truth, it is 
not so much the creation and endowment of separate 
schools of this character which is in view, as the gradual 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 131 

conversion of all the existing schools of the land to this 
use, through the grafting of certain studies and exer- 
cises upon the traditional curriculum. Such conver- 
sion would involve only a slight disturbance of the 
structure of the existing schools; but it would require 
the surrender of a not inconsiderable portion of time to 
the new studies and exercises. 

In order not to protract this paper unduly, or to pro- 
voke needless controversy, I shall on the present occasion 
confine my remarks to the relations of the proposed 
changes in public instruction to the boys of our public 
schools, leaving open the question whether the girls 
shall join in the new departure, or not. 

As to the precise nature and extent of the studies and 
exercises which should, to this end, be incorporated in 
the public school cun'iculum, and as to the order of these 
exercises, much difference of opinion will doubtless be 
developed among those who advocate an extensive modi- 
fication of the present scheme of education. The true 
final system, will, of course, have to be worked out 
through long discussion and experimentation. The 
following is presented as a fairly conservative pro- 
gramme : 

Beginning with the pupil at the stage when kinder- 
garten methods and appliances are exhausted of their 
efficiency, the scholar should be instructed in the ele- 
mentary principles of physics and mechanics through 
the use of simple models and apparatus, and should be- 
come familiarized through frequent statement and illus- 



132 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

tration witli tlie fundamental conceptions of geometry. 
There is a deep-seated popular error as to the age at 
which such things as the above can advantageously be 
acquired. It is too often assumed that because the 
young child is not competent to study geometry system- 
atically he need be taught nothing geometrical; that 
because it would be foolish to present to him physics and 
mechanics as sciences it is useless to present to him any 
physical or mechanical principles. 

An error of like origin, which has wrought incalcula- 
ble mischief, denies to the scholar the use of the symbols 
and methods of algebra in connection with his early 
essays in numbers because, forsooth, he is not as yet 
capable of mastering quadratics! If our children were 
taught to " do their sums " algebraically at eight, nine, 
or ten, the later parts of the algebra would have far less 
terror for them at fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen. And 
yet, from the notion that the teacher must not take up 
any subject which the pupil is not prepared to go 
through with to the end and to master scientifically, we 
drive our boys and girls to the most painful and ab- 
surdly roundabout methods of solving problems. The 
moment the child begins to " do sums " upon his slate 
he needs his x and y, and for lack of them he is con- 
tinually driven back to " AVhat d'ye call 'em," or 
" thingumbob," his unknown quantity, the object of 
inquiry for which he is refused a symbol — the length 
of the pole, John's share of the cake, the number of gal- 
lons in the cistern, or what not. The whole infant 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 133 

generation, wrestling with arithmetic, seek for a sign 
and groan and travail together in pain for the want of 
it; but no sign is given them save the sign of the prophet 
Jonah, the withered gourd, fruitless endeavor, wasted 
strength. 

To teach the so-called arithmetic of the common 
school without the use of the algebraic signs and nota- 
tion, is in the last degree barbarous; yet it is done, almost 
without exception, in the case of ten millions of school 
children, all from the notion that they are not yet pre- 
pared to enter upon the study of algebra! Study of 
algebra! Algebra is a tool, and nothing but a tool, and, 
so far as equations of the first degree are concerned, it 
is a tool which the child needs the moment he is set to 
inquire in how many days Jones and Brown can do a 
piece of work together, if Jones could do it in ten days 
alone or Brown in fifteen. For an equally bad reason, 
many things have been withheld from school children, 
though these were things of which every child should 
be informed at the earliest possible moment, because 
they belong to geometry, for the systematic study of 
which the scholar has been held not to be prepared. 

It is true that of late years, teachers, drawing doubt- 
less their inspiration from the kindergarten, have pre- 
sumed to give the geometry of the square and cube be- 
fore requiring the arithmetic of square root and cube 
root; but this concession to common sense stands almost 
solitary and alone on the pages of the modem text-book. 
Take, for example, the conception of a plane, the most 



134 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

difficult and the moat important of all conceptions for 
the purposes of the geometer, the astronomer, the mech- 
anician. This conception should, for subsequent success 
whether in geometry, in astronomy, or in mechanics, be 
formed in the mind of the child at the earliest possible 
moment, just as the notion of right should be formed in 
his mind years and years before he is called to the sys- 
tematic study of ethics.^ No subsequent effort can 

' As to the question whether morality can be tauglit in our public 
schools without sectarianism, I would say that I do not see how any 
system of morality which undertakes to go back to an ultimate rule 
of right can be taught without sectarianism. 

If, however, the teacher is content to begin somewhat short of that 
point, it seems to me perfectly practicable to give instruction in ethics 
without involving any sectarian issues, although it is doubtful 
whether this can be done without arousing sectarian spirit, inas- 
much as there are certain sects or denominations which resent the 
omission of their own particular tenets, as itself irreligious and im- 
moral. Of course, with such people you can do nothing. They are 
opposed alike to public school teaching with ethics and without 
ethics; and any attempt to conciliate them or buy off their opposition 
will be futile, and will only weaken the dignity and authority of the 
school system. 

As to just how much may be taught without raising sectarian 
issues, opinions might differ widely, and I do not claim to have made 
a special study of this department of instruction. I should say, how- 
ever, that : 

1. Legal ethics may be taught without offense being properly 
taken by anyone, and this would cover a large part of the desirable 
field of teaching. Clearly, all the acts which are prescribed, or are 
forbidden, by the law of the land may properly be embraced in the 
instruction of the public schools. 

2. It appears to me that utilitarian ethics may be taught in the public 
schools without raising sectarian issues, and without arousing the sec- 
tarian susceptibilities of any person who is not at heart opposed to the 
schools themselves. I mean by utilitarian ethics a system or scheme of 
morality which, without attempting to raise the question of the ulti- 
mate rule of right, shall accept the greatest good to the greatest num- 
ber as an approximate rule for determining what is best to be done and 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 135 

make up for the neglect of such fundamental concep- 
tions in the very beginnings of education. The free- 
dom and force with which these conceptions will be 
referred to and made use of in after-life, must in a very 
large degree depend upon the age at which they are first 
acquired. 

They should be early implanted in the mind that they 
may grow with its growth and strengthen with its 
strengtli. What sort of students of literature would 
you have if you put off the teaching of the alphabet of 
letters till fourteen or fifteen or sixteen, as you in fact 
put off the teaching of the alphabet of science? You 
give the child English letters at five or six, and let him 
grow up, through long practice in easy lessons, with 
fairy stories and picture books, and tales of travel and 
adventure, to the capability of reading and compre- 
hending the masterpieces of literature; yet it is only on 
the day when the young man begins the scientific study 
of optics, for example, that you give him a definition of 
light and show him simple experiments in reflection and 
refraction. The student should at this age be unable to 
remember when he did not know these things; and no 
amount of hard work in after-life can ever wholly make 
up for the lack of early familiarity with the subjects of 

what is best to be left undone. Such a scheme could manifestly be ex- 
tended to embrace nearly all the practical topics involved in any system 
of ethics ■without raising any sectarian issues. It would, moreover, 
constitute an excellent beginning for a course in civics. — From, a 
Symposium, " Can morality be taught in t?ie public schools inithout 
sectarianism f " in the " Christian Register," January 31, 18S9. 



136 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

his study, the value of which every instructor acknowl- 
edges in other branches of education, whether relating 
to literature, to morals, or to practical affairs. 

Time will not serve for an extended illustration of 
this subject. A child of ten or twelve years is capable 
of understanding the principle of the lever just as per- 
fectly as did Archimedes of old Syracuse. Once implant 
that conception in his mind and it becomes germinal 
and, without watering or tending, will bear fruit peren- 
nially through all his life. 

A child of the same age can comprehend the principle 
of the arch, when illustrated by a few blocks from a car- 
penter's shop, as fully as does the architect who hangs 
a stone dome one hundred feet in air; and when he has 
once comprehended the construction and office of the 
arch, his eye will never threafter fall unintelligently 
upon an example of it. A child of the same age is capa- 
ble of comprehending the law of perspective. Why in 
the name of common sense should one go on for years, 
walking through our streets or over our fields, his eye 
falling at every glance upon some object which is sub- 
ject to this law, and yet never be instructed regarding it? 

Do you ask how much of the elements of physics and 
mechanics should be given to the child of tender years? 
I answer: just as much as he will take, be the same more 
or less. And it is always safe to offer him a little more 
than he will take. It can't do him any harm. Cram- 
ming him with hard and lumpy facts, from so-called 
geographies or histories, may produce mental indiges- 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 137 

tion or colic ;^ but an idea, an apprehended principle, 
never yet hurt a human being, and never will, to the 
latest syllable of recorded time. For myself, I would 
not stop short of teaching a child the doctrine of the 

' I think that the introduction of the system of what I call mechan- 
ical education in the schools of Massachusetts and Connecticut, as I 
have known them while a member of the State Board of Education, 
would have the effect to crowd out and extrude from our common 
schools one half the geography and one-half the arithmetic and one- 
half the grammar that is now taught. It would have a beneficial 
result even if nothing were substituted that was itself directly 
beneficial. 

Take the simple study of geography. The amount of gazetteer in- 
formation that is crowded into our grammar-school course is posi- 
tively absurd. I remember once asking my little girl, twelve years 
old, some question which I did not suppose she would answer, but 
rather to tease her, and she replied: " I can't tell you that, papa, but 
I can tell you the names of all the principal towns in Siberia." I 
was at the time a professor of history, and I didn't know the name 
of a town in Siberia, and I don't want to. It is not of the slightest 
consequence for any literary or specific purpose that I should. 
Take another case: — I do not want to revile the common schools, but 
I think it is fair to state it; — one of my boys, twelve years old, 
came home one day and said that the supervisor was to come on in 
a few days and to examine the boys in geography; and, to meet that 
examination, that boy of twelve got forty-four fair-sized pages, 
which he wrote out himself in order to get it more thoroughly, of 
information of a purely gazetteer, encyclopedic character. Thirty- 
three cities of Asia were on that list, and that boy not only got it up, 
which might have been reasonable work, but committed it to 
memory. 

Now, such information is of no earthly value whatever to any 
scholar for any purpose, because no man can afford to put into his 
memory all that is in a gazetteer. He has neither the nerve nor 
brain power to put it there. It is highly artificial work, and he has 
other needs for those powers without straining them so much in one 
direction. There is no psychologist in the world who would for a 
moment approve of such studies for boys of twelve, and if they 
could be extruded from the common schools it would be an advantage 
to the pupils. — From Testimony before the Committee of the Senate of 
the United States upon tlie Relations between Labor and Capital, 1885. 



138 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

persistence of force through all its transmutations. 
Doubtless he would at first fail to apprehend it fully; 
yet he would gather something from its familiar, pic- 
turesque enunciation; and, as the proposition became 
familiar to his ear, and as illustrations of the equivalency 
of motion, heat, light, and sound were multiplied and 
repeated to him, I should hope that he would grow into 
an apprehension and appreciation of this grand, all- 
embracing law. 

If it be asked of what advantage would it be to the 
youthful mind that it should be taught these and the 
like things, I answer: first, that if to observe phe- 
nomena quickly and clearly, if to reflect closely and 
justly, if to acquire an habitual and, in time, instinctive 
disposition to trace effects to their causes, if these things 
be among the prime objects of education, comparison 
may be challenged between the matter of study that has 
been described and the work that now takes up two- 
thirds of the time of the scholar of the age we have 
been considering. Secondly, that if the direct useful- 
ness of the information acquired be adopted as the test 
of different systems of education, the elements of 
geometry, physics, and mechanics have preference, in 
an enormous degree, over the traditional studies of the 
primary and grammar schools. But, thirdly, that the 
main argument for the early acquisition of these ele- 
ments is to be found in their usefulness as a preparation 
for the study of geometry, physics, and applied me- 
chanics in later years. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 139 

While altering in a degree the traditional curriculum 
of the public schools by the introduction of the elements 
of geometry, physics, and mechanics, I would recom- 
mend the extension of the drawing-practice of the 
schools even beyond the point to which it is now carried 
in our most enlightened cities. And it is a consideration 
of prime importance in this connection that great as is 
the interest awakened by drawing-practice, under the 
better teachers, even as students are now prepared for 
it in our public schools, those exercises would acquire a 
vast increase of attractiveness from the studies already 
described in the elements of geometry, physics, and me- 
chanics. The pupil would in a higher degree appre- 
ciate much that he was called to do in his drawing 
exercises, and would find a heightened pleasure in the 
practice of this art as it became a means of expressing 
principles with which he had been made familiar. And 
as the drawing exercise received a great enhancement of 
attractiveness through the pupil's comprehension of the 
principles underlying the figures and designs to be con- 
structed, so, at the other end, would it receive a fresh 
addition of interest by being correlated with the shop- 
work in wood, in iron, and in clay, which, according to 
the friends of industrial education, should form a part 
of the exercises of the public schools. 

We here reach the last stage of our subject. Indus- 
trial education involves, first, the teaching of the ele- 
ments of geometry, physics, and mechanics; secondly, 
drawing ; and, thirdly, shop work of one kind or another. 



140 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

During the past few years practice in the mechanic arts, 
especially in wood-working, but also in forge, foundry, 
and lathe work, has been introduced as an integral part 
of a system of education, in several sections of the coun- 
try. ISTo one is known to have been in any way con- 
nected with this new kind of teaching who is not an en- 
thusiastic believer in its beneficent effects at once upon 
the scholar and upon the general system of public in- 
struction ; while, of late, converts have been rapidly made 
from among those who formerly doubted or denied the 
expediency of this innovation in education. The year 
now closing has seen the schoolroom space, the apparatus 
and machinery, and the teaching force devoted to this 
work more than doubled, perhaps we might say trebled. 
The next year will undoubtedly witness an even greater 
increase. The thing is coming, and coming fast, faster 
probably than the means can well be provided; and 
doubtless mistakes, not a few, will be made in the haste 
to introduce this kind of teaching. 

In general it may be said that the course of propaga- 
tion is likely to be from the high school downward to 
the grammar and then to the elementary schools, and 
from the city outward through the small towns to the 
rural districts. The chief difficulty to be encountered 
will not be the difficulty of finding means, or the oppo- 
sition of school committees or boards of aldermen, but 
the lack of competent teachers. In this view the State 
of Massachusetts has wisely initiated practice in the 
mechanic arts in two of its normal schools. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 141 

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which 
eight years ago/ under the enlightened administration 
of Dr. Runkle, established a school of the mechanic arts, 
the applications for instructors in this department are 
already far in excess of those which can be met. Dr. 
Runkle has, within a few weeks, issued a pamphlet ^ 
which embraces in condensed form many well-considered 
suggestions regarding the organization of this kind of 
schools, with detailed statements as to the equipment of 
shops for instruction in the mechanic arts. The reports 
of the St. Louis Manual Training School, under the 
supervision of its capable and enthusiastic director. Pro- 
fessor Woodward, contain information of great value 
regarding the new form of education. 

The advantages to be anticipated from the introduc- 
tion of training in the mechanic arts into the grammar 
and high schools of the land are many and important. 

First, it will increase the freedom of industrial move- 
ment, allowing our youth as they leave school to find for 
themselves places in the industrial order with more of 
ease and assurance than at present. This, as has been 
said, is in contradiction of a vague popular opinion that 
the proposed system is in the direction of class educa- 
tion ; but the principle is undeniable ; only the degree of 
its importance can possibly be disputed. 

A lad of fifteen leaving the grammar school, or a lad 

• That is, in 1876.— Ed. 

"Report ou Industrial Education, by John D. Runkle, LL. D.. 
Walker Professor of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology. Boston : W. F. Brown & Co. 



142 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

of eighteen leaving the high school, is not required to 
become a mechanic because he has had long practice in 
the use of tools, because he has acquired a familiarity 
with the materials of construction, because he has be- 
come neat, dexterous, and expert in manipulation, be- 
cause he can make a working-drawing of a piece of 
machinery or furniture ; because he has had his sense of 
form, of magnitude, and of proportion trained to the 
nicest discrimination, and because he can work with his 
eye and his hand as well as with his brain, and with all 
of these in the closest cooperation. But if he is to be- 
come a mechanic, he will have a much wider choice 
between individual trades, by reason of these things; 
and again, when he has chosen his trade, he can acquire 
the special knowledge and the special skill requisite 
thereto in one-half the time which a mere apprentice 
would take, and he will acquire them, moreover, to much 
better effect; while, still again, he Avill be a workman 
who, after a few years of practice, will be fit, by reason 
of ability to make working-drawings, of knowledge of 
mathematics and mechanical principles, and of superior 
mental training, to be promoted to the post of foreman 
or superintendent of construction; or he may set up for 
himself as contractor or master, wnth a prospect of suc- 
cess far exceeding that of one of equal natural abilities 
who has enjoyed only the special training of a single 
trade. 

Secondly, so far as the graduates of the reformed 
grammar and high schools are not to become mechanics, 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 143 

they will certainly be no worse off, by reason of this 
training; but in many ways they will be the better quali- 
fied, even in commercial pursuits or in clerical capaci- 
ties in connection mth manufacturing or railroad enter- 
prises, to make themselves useful to their employers 
from their manual dexterity, the capability of using 
tools, and the special knowledge acquired in school. But 
far more than this will be the advantage derived from 
the training of the perceptive powers, the formation of 
the habit of observation, and the development of the 
executive faculty, the power, that is, of doing things as 
distinguished from thinking or talking or writing about 
them. To these the traditional curriculum of the 
schools fails to minister in the smallest degree; and the 
longer mnemonics, analytics, and dialectics are exclu- 
sively pursued, the farther is the student carried from the 
temper and qualities of mind which achieve success, ex- 
cept in a few closely restricted and already overcrowded 
professions. It is the sense of this which leads so many 
parents to withdraw their children at an early age, re- 
ducing the number who go forward from the grammar 
to the high school to a petty fraction of the whole 
number. 

With the school exercises modified and diversified as 
has been proposed, I sincerely believe that the average 
period of attendance would be at once appreciably in- 
creased, and that parents would withdraw their children 
only at the demand of pecuniary necessities which could 
not be denied, and not, as so largely now, because they 



144 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

feel that the school is doing nothing practically useful 
for their children, and, indeed, that the longer they stay, 
after fifteen, the less will they be fitted for the work of 
life. 

Thirdly, the introduction of shop work into the pub- 
lic system of education cannot fail to have a most bene- 
ficial influence in promoting a respect for labor and in 
overcoming the false and pernicious passion of our young 
people for crowding themselves into overdone and 
underpaid departments, where they may escape manual 
exertion at almost any sacrifice. This tendency of the 
times has been loudly complained of, but how have those 
a right to complain who support the old order of things 
under which all the praise and all the prizes of the 
school are bestowed upon glibness of speech, retentive- 
ness of memory, ease or force of declamation, and skill 
in dialectics? If the authority of the State and the in- 
fluence of the teacher combine to set up such a standard, 
what wonder that the pupil accepts the same view of 
what is admirable and desirable, holds other qualities in 
little esteem, and deems himself too fine for a common 
trade and a humble calling? Let the State honor labor 
in the school; let some of the praise and some of the 
prizes go to neatness of manipulation, skill in the use of 
tools, taste in design, patience and ingenuity in execu- 
tion; let the pupil see his master, now and then, with 
his coat off and a paper cap on his head, teaching the 
use of the plane and the lathe; give the boy to know the 
delight of seeing things grow and take shape under his 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 145 

hands, and it requires no prophet to assure us that our 
young people will come to look on life very differently 
and much more wisely. 

Fourthly, the consideration which weighs more than 
any other, in my mind, is that the introduction of shop 
work into the public schools, closely affiliated with exer- 
cises in drawing and design, will give a place, where 
now there is no place at all or only a most uncomfortable 
one, to those boys who are strong in perception, apt in 
manipulation, and correct in the interpretation of phe- 
nomena, but who are not good at memorizing or rehears- 
ing the opinions and statements of others, or who, by 
diffidence, slowness of speech, or awkwardness of mental 
conformation, are unfitted for mental gymnastics. It 
is mighty little that the ordinary grammar or high school 
does at present for scholars of these classes. N^ot only 
do they, at the best, get little personal pleasure from their 
work and receive little of the commendation of the 
teacher, but, in the great majority of cases, they are 
written down blockheads at the start, and have their 
whole school life turned to shame and bitterness. And 
yet it not unfrequently happens that the boy who is so 
regarded because he cannot master an artificial style of 
grammatical analysis, isn't worth a cent for giving a list 
of the kings of England, doesn't know and doesn't care 
what are the principal productions of Borneo, has a bet- 
ter pair of eyes, a better pair of hands, and, even by the 
standards of the merchant, the manufacturer, and the 
railroad president, a better head, than his teacher. 



146 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

I desire not to exaggerate; I wish to speak with the 
utmost seriousness and in strict truthfulness. Of how 
much advantage is it to a scholar in the average gram- 
mar school of Boston or New York or Chicago, in doing 
his work or in earning the praise of his teacher, that he 
has a quick perception of form and color; that he sees 
everything presented to his view at once broadly and 
particularly, his eye taking in all the features of an ob- 
ject in their due order and proportion, his mind justly 
interpreting the significance of each and every feature 
by turns and in the whole; that he has a subtle touch, 
great patience under vexation, an ingenious and invent- 
ive mind? There are as many boys in our schools of 
whom the above can be said, as there are of boys who 
are quick to memorize and rehearse the opinions and 
statements of others, or who are strong and lively in the 
gymnastics of arithmetic and of grammar. There are 
not only as many of the former boys as of the latter, but 
they are quite as deserving of sympathy and respect, be- 
sides being rather better qualified to become of use in 
the industrial and social order. And yet for that class 
of boys the school offers almost nothing upon which 
they can employ these priceless powers. They may, by 
laboring painfully over the prescribed but uncongenial 
eixercises, escape the stigma of being blockheads; but 
they can never do very well; they will always be at a 
disadvantage in comparison with boys of the other class; 
they will know nothing of the joys of commendation; 
and it is most fortunate if they do not become dis- 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 147 

couraged, indifferent, and in time careless or even reck- 
less of their standing. Such boys are practically 
plowed under, in our schools, as not worth harvest- 
ing. The teacher may be ever so pitiful and patient; 
that matters something so far as the child's happiness is 
concerned, but, so long as he is kept wholly at exercises 
for which he is not by nature qualified, it makes little 
difference as to his chances of success as a scholar. 

The introduction of practice in the mechanic arts 
would strike a responsive chord in the hearts of all boys 
of the class 1 have so inadequately described; it would 
at once give them something to do in which they could 
excel; it would quicken their interest in the school; it 
would save their self-respect; to many it would open a 
door into practical life. 

For a partial illustration of these effects, let me refer 
to the introduction of drawing into the public schools, 
already so widely accomplished. If the acquirement of 
this art were absolutely of no value, if the training of 
the eye and hand involved were put out of account, I 
fully believe that, in spite of the very shabby way in 
which this subject has generally been taught heretofore, 
drawing in the schools has repaid its cost tenfold, 
simply in the opportunity it has given to a host of 
scholars to do something well, to their own satisfaction, 
to the commendation of their teachers, and to the ad- 
miration of their mates. 

Here is a little fellow who has no aptitude for the 
traditional studies of the schoolroom. He has either 



148 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

given way after a sliort struggle to a feeling that he is 
a dunce anyhow, and that it is of no use to try; or, after 
a longer and harder struggle, he has succumbed to a still 
more bitter and lasting discouragement. He has be- 
come accustomed to be blamed at school and at home for 
his low standing; he has ceased to look for words of 
approbation; he has learned to expect a look of sadness 
or of anger on his father's face as his monthly card is 
presented. 

But now a new exercise is introduced into the school, 
and, after the inevitable blottings and smearings of the 
first trials, it comes one day to the comprehension of the 
teacher that this boy has executed his work better than 
any other scholar; has done best of all something which 
by authority has been pronounced worth doing. For 
the first time that lad, who has all the time been strug- 
gling with a hopeless incapacity for identifying " apposi- 
tive modifiers " and " cognate adjectives," hears the 
sweet and pleasant voice of praise, sees the admiring 
glances of his comrades fall on him, yes, on him! and 
feels the pulse of ambition throb at his temples. 

With what anticipations of pleasure will this lad here- 
after await the signal to take up drawing, with what 
pains will he execute his work, with what pride hand in 
his faultless sheets! IIow changed to him hence- 
forth is the schoolroom ; how different, even, sounds the 
school bell in the morning! If the introduction of 
drawing has done so much for many a boy, how much 
more fully and completely will the needs of this class of 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 149 

youths be met by the introduction of shop work in its 
various branches of carpentry, forge, foundry, and lathe 
work, in intimate and vital relations with drawing and 
with the elements of geometry, physics, and mechanics! 
I might dwell on other considerations; upon the im- 
pulse to be communicated to invention and discovery, 
upon the disclosure, here and there, of rare mechanical 
genius, which, under the old system of education, might 
have been hopelessly lost in a dreary wilderness of 
words ; upon the value of the arts acquired in saving dis- 
repair within the home, enabling the thousand needed 
strokes of the hammer to be well and promptly given, 
securing the insertion of the nail in time that saves nine; 
upon the virtue which a general mechanical education 
of the people would have in preserving and exalting the 
priceless sense of social decency which keeps the fence 
along the village street in order, the gate hung, the 
glass set, the shutter in place; but perhaps I have 
already said enough to introduce the discussion of the 
question of Industrial Education, 



A PLEA FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 
IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

1887 



Address before the Conperence of Associated 
Charities of the City of Boston, February 10, 1887. 



A PLEA FOE INDUSTKIAL EDUCATION IN THE 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Those of us wko attended the conference of January 
20th heard some of the strong arguments presented by 
the learned Secretary^ of the State Board of Education in 
opposition to the general views and purposes entertained 
by those who favor the incorporation of more or less of 
so-called Industrial Education with the public-school 
system of the Commonwealth. While objections from 
such a source could hardly be welcome to those who are 
deeply interested in the projected reforms, there should 
yet be no resentment at their being offered. If our pur- 
poses and plans are in general sound and wholesome, 
they will bear challenge and criticism, and will be the 
better for it. Discussion — direct, sincere, and earnest 
discussion — is in the interest of the very cause itself; 
and the sharper the challenge, and the more cogent the 
presentation of any and all objections, the better for us, 
if indeed we are right on the main issue. 

Especially is it the duty of the Secretary of the State 
Board of Education to stand up for the integi-ity and 
purity of the schools of Massachusetts, if he deems them 
threatened from any quarter; and in his main conten- 
tion. Dr. Dickinson is unquestionably right. The pri- 

' Hon. J. W. Dickinson, LL. D. Resigning in 1894, he was suc- 
ceeded by the present Secretary, Hon. Frank A. Hill. — Ed. 

153 



154 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

mar J purpose of our public-school system was education; 
and it cannot in any considerable degree be made to 
serve any other purpose than education, without a per- 
version of agency and almost an abuse of trust. The 
good old principle that education, so far as the public 
schools are concerned, should be general, not special; 
should be liberal, not technical ; should be directed to the 
complete and harmonious development of the faculties 
of the child, and not to the mere acquisition of arts and 
knacks which can easily be turned to practical uses — 
this principle I believe to be as true, and as important to 
the integrity of our school system, as at any time in our 
history. 

And I must beg you to excuse me for going farther 
and for saying frankly in this presence, remembering 
that I am addressing a Conference of Charities, that the 
public schools should be expected to do little directly in 
the way of relieving the community from the burden of 
pauperism. The best that the schools can do for the 
interests which you have so much at heart is to perform 
their proper educational work with thoroughness, with 
efficiency, with enthusiasm. While I am far from say- 
ing that no burdens should be put upon the public 
schools, for the general good, yet I believe that the prin- 
ciple which has been laid down should be strongly ad- 
hered to, in good faith and good feeling; and that those 
who propose any exception thereto should be required 
to prove their case, against a strong presumption in favor 
of the purely educational character of all school work. 



A PLEA FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 155 

While thus amply conceding that which Dr. Dickin- 
son claims regarding the proper purpose and scope of our 
schools, issue may fairly be taken with him as to the 
educational character of the proposed new studies and 
exercises. In order to clear the ground for such a dis- 
cussion it may appear not pedantic and not unreasonable 
to go back thirty or forty years in our history. Per- 
haps, also, it may not appear impertinent to offer here a 
piece of personal experience. I entered the schools of 
Massachusetts at four years of age, and left them at fif- 
teen to go to college. In all the interval I do not re- 
member ever to have been set to any study or exercise 
which I could not have done just as well if bom without 
hands, except solely for the convenience of holding a 
book and turning over its leaves, or of writing on paper, 
slate, or blackboard; which I could not have done just 
as well if aflSicted with total blindness, except solely for 
the greater difficulty of learning lessons by having them 
read to me ; indeed, but for this, a blind boy would have 
had an advantage over me, as being less subject to have 
his attention distracted by surrounding objects. I do 
not recall any exercise which I could not have performed 
equally well without the use of hearing, except only for 
purposes of communication with the teacher; and, in- 
deed, a deaf child would, but for that, have had an ad- 
vantage over me, as being less subject to interruption or 
distraction from without. 

]!^ow, who mil say that there can be a complete edu- 
cation of the child where the senses are thus neglected? 



156 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

Let us not, even for a good object, exaggerate tlie part 
performed by the perceptive powers; but we may right- 
fully insist that there should be, in every day and in 
almost every hour of school life, exercises which call the 
senses into active operation and hold them in strict atten- 
tion, while from above, the mind, their master, guide, 
and helper, observes, records, and interprets all that the 
senses have to tell/ 

But this was not all that was lacking in the old educa- 
tion. While the memory was fostered into an abnormal 
and monstrous growth, nothing was offered which even 
tended to train the judgment. Indeed, the enormous 
body of facts which the pupils were expected to receive 
and cherish, solely upon the authority of others, consti- 
tuted a direct discouragement to the faculty of judgment 
and to the spirit of self-reliance. 

' The great educational value of manual training lies in the method 
of instruction used. It is the laboratory, or workshop, method, — the 
same method that has proved so effectual of late years in reforming 
the teaching of chemistry, physics, and the natural sciences in our 
high schools and colleges. 

This workshop or laboratory method of instruction brings the 
learner face to face with the facts of nature. His mind in- 
creases in knowledge by direct personal experience with forms of 
matter, and manifestations of force. No mere words intervene. 
Abstract definitions, statements, and rules are put aside. They are 
not recognized as knowledge, but only as the frames or cases into 
which knowledge can be put when once it is got. I firmly believe 
that the introduction of the manual-training element into our school 
work will promote still further this salutary reform; that it will (end 
to abolish the mere nominal teaching, of which there is yet too much, 
and replace it with real teaching, — a teaching that seeks to develop 
mental power, rather than to load the memory witli words, to make 
the pupil a possessor of the solid merchandise of knowledge rather 
than of its empty packing-cases. — Edwin P. Seaver, Superintendent 
of Schools, Boston. 



A PLEA FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 157 

Moreover, there was absolutely nothing in the school 
studies and exercises of those days which tended to direct 
and develop the executive faculty; the power, that is, of 
doing things, as distinguished from thinking about them, 
talking about them, writing about them. ISTo one 
familiar with the laws of mind will be disposed to deny 
that there is at least a tendency, in the protracted study 
of any subject, apart from putting that study to a prac- 
tical use, toward producing a partial paralysis of the 
will, shown in a disposition to procrastinate, to multiply 
distinctions, and to stand shivering on the brink of 
action. Finally, and worst of all, the school studies and 
exercises of that age gave no play to that constructive 
passion which is inherent in every healthy child's mind 
— a passion which is so strong that it is readily per- 
verted, through lack of opportunity and exercise, into 
the passion for destruction, just as every good thing is 
susceptible of perversion into an agency of evil or mis^ 
chief. When, in 1843, my father for the first time 
visited Europe, he brought home with him a box of toys, 
which bore this inscription: 

" Boys in Holland love to make 
"What boys in England love to break,"- 

It is only fair to say that the boy who breaks is the same 
boy, ill taught and ill trained, as the boy who makes; 
and that the boy who breaks most is the boy who, if his 
energies were properly directed, would make most. 
Such was the l!^ew England school of forty and thirty 



158 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

years ago;^ but tlie results, in education, were not so bad 
as might be conjectured from this rude description. A 
great majority of our people lived in isolated farm- 
houses, or in small villages, where access to the land was 
easy. Out of school every boy had his stint of work and 
his opportunities for play in the barn, over the fields, 
through the woods, where his senses were continually 
quickened, the faculty of judgment called into exercise, 
the executive power strengthened, the constructive pas- 

' In the early days of the Republic, when our system of public 
education was still in its infancy, mental and manual education were 
much more intimately connected than at the present day. The in- 
dustries of the country were still in a crude state, agriculture and a 
few only of the more necessary mechanic trades having any exist- 
ence. These trades demanded but little artistic taste, and not the 
highest manual skill; but the educational needs of the time were 
quite well met in the apprenticeship system, which existed then in 
its best form. The master became responsible, in an important sense, 
for the mental and moral well-being of the apprentice, besides teach- 
ing him the manual of his trade, with such knowledge of the theory 
and such experience as he was able to impart. By his attendance for 
three or four months of each year during his apprenticeship upon 
the district school the mental culture of the apprentice was not en- 
tirely discontinued; and thus, by alternating between the school and 
the shop, his mental and manual education were never entirely di- 
vorced, but each in an important sense aided the other. During this 
formative period of the student's life one set of habits was not 
formed to the exclusion of others which in the end might prove 
more important. 

As time passed, a more marked separation between mental and 
manual education began to take place. The school gradually im- 
proved. Better methods of teacliing and a larger number of subjects 
were introduced, and a higher standard set, all demanding more 
time from the pupil. But quite as marked a change was going on 
in the industries. Increased demand led to competition, to the in- 
vention of special tools to cheapen production, to a greater subdi- 
vision of labor, and to the concentration of the individual upon a 
very narrow range of work. Thus the apprenticeship system for 



A PLEA FOB INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 159 

sion given scope and swing. By these means, accessible 
to all, muck was done to supply the deficiencies and to 
offset the evil tendencies of the strictly school educa- 
tion. It would be idle to say that the senses, the faculty 
of judgment, the executive power, the constructive pas- 
sion, can be as fully and as harmoniously developed 
and trained in unregulated play, or in ill-regulated and 
unsupervised work, as they might be in well-considered 
studies and exercises directed by capable teachers; but, 

learning a trade in its old and best form has passed away, never to 
return. As it exists to-day, it is an advantage to neither party. The 
apprentice can only learn a narrow specialty, so narrow, as a rule, 
that its only value to him is the meager pittance which he can earn 
from day to day, but at the sacrifice of any further educational ad- 
vantages; while the master finds it for his interest to pay for the skill 
he needs, rather than put into his carefully adjusted chain of opera- 
tions a weak and nearly useless link. In this way the school and the 
shop have become so widely separated that they are no longer mutual 
helps, as in past times, in developing the highest capacity or the 
highest manhood. The student who enters the shop at fifteen for a 
three or four years' apprenticeship seldom returns to the school; 
and, on the other hand, the student who completes his high-school 
course at eighteen seldom willingly enters the shop as an apprentice, 
with the intention of becoming a skilled mechanic and earning a 
livelihood by manual labor. His twelve or fourteen years of mental 
school-work, whether highly successful or not, have through habit, 
if in no other way, unfitted him for all manual work, even if he has 
not in many ways been taught to despise such labor. Thus it hap- 
pens that to-day educators, law-makers, philanthropists, and all 
interested in the highest good of the largest number of the people, or 
in the best development of our growing and varied industries, are 
looking for the remedy through education, not of the head alone, but 
of the head and hand combined in the same system, in order that the 
education may lead each pupil to some definite end, or directly to 
the threshold of some special pursuit; that the student's skill of head 
and hand combined shall have some small commercial value when 
he has completed his prescribed course of study. — Professor J. D. 
Runkle : Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, ISlQ-ll . 



160 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

clearly, what the boys of forty and thirty years ago 
enjoyed in this way was vastly better than nothing. 

This last, namely, nothing, is about what the greater 
part of the boys of to-day enjoy in these respects. The 
majority of our people now reside in cities or large 
towns. The boy, when out of school, can no longer re- 
sort to the carpenter's bench in the barn; for there is no 
barn, not even a wood-shed — only a coal-cellar. He 
may at times be found in a vacant, unfilled lot, having a 
very poor time playing a very poor game of ball; now 
and then he may make a laborious expedition to some 
park or skating-pond for amusement; but during the 
most of the time he has no resort outside the house 
except the sidewalk. 

Even in the country the state of things has greatly 
changed within the last forty and twenty years. For- 
merly the population was almost entirely of native New 
England stock possessing wonderful dexterity, great 
inventive power, and a mechanical insight which 
amounted to genius. At the same time, the mechanic 
arts, and even the factory industries, were carried on in 
such a way that almost every person employed might be 
regarded as a skilled workman. How great the change! 
To-day these regions are peopled by tens of thousands of 
Irish and French-Canadians, who have inherited little 
mechanical insight, and almost no inventive power, and 
have themselves had small training in the arts of in- 
dustry. The specialization of manufactures has been 
carried so far that, in some departments, an operative 



A PLEA FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 161 

often need not be a meclianic in any sense of that term, 
using only a single tool and performing only a single 
simple operation from one year's end to another. Even 
the mechanic arts have been differentiated, until indi- 
vidual skill has largely gone out of them. The car- 
penter of the old days made sash, doors, and blinds; he 
planed, matched, and grooved his boards; he built his 
stairways; he did a hundred things requiring dexterity 
and fine workmanship. To-day sash, doors, and blinds 
are made in large factories, wholesale; boards come 
planed and matched by steam; stairways are built at 
central points, on specifications furnished, and are 
shipped ready to be put up. The old-fashioned carpen- 
ter has almost disappeared. 

Such, to a great extent, are the fathers of the boys 
who now attend the country schools of JSTew England. 
Few of them are capable of giving their children that 
instruction in mechanic arts which every father in the 
olden time gave his boys as a matter of course. Such, 
and so extensive, have been the changes in the social 
conditions of our people. Meanwhile, it is fair to say, 
the schools have not stood still; but have in no small 
degree expanded their courses and changed their 
methods, to meet the new wants of the community. In 
the country districts, indeed, the studies and exercises 
remain substantially as they were; but in the cities and 
larger towns there has been much improvement. For 
the younger children, the blessed kindergarten has 
come; and, although the imported article will bear con- 



162 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

siderable modifications, as assuming an impossible child- 
ishness, — a childishness of which no American child, at 
any rate, was ever guilty, — the kindergarten has come 
to stay.^ Although thus far, unfortunately, remaining 
mainly outside the public-school system, its methods 
have not a little modified the ways of teaching in the 
lower grades of the public schools; while in the upper 
rooms, the objective study of natural science, with 
plants, minerals, and examples of animal life in the 
hands of the teacher and of the pupils, is introducing 
some of those elements which were most painfully lack- 
ing in the olden time. Moreover, the general adoption 
of drawing ^ as a school exercise is doing much to quicken 

' The kindergarten not only gives the young children a good start 
intellectually, but it also has a very marked and beneficial effect on 
them morally. The subsequent instruction and discipline in the pri- 
mary schools would be much easier, and the progress in knowledge 
much more satisfactory, if all pupils first took the kindergarten 
instruction. 

It is not necessary to go into a theoretical argument to prove the 
benefits of kindergarten training. We have the practical demonstra- 
tion in Mrs. Shaw's kindergartens in this city. It is chiefly from my 
study of these in actual operation that I have come to believe 
that we need many more of them — indeed, that the kindergarten 
ought to be recognized and established as a part of the system of 
public instruction in this city. There are other large cities where 
this has been done, to the great benefit of the youngest children. I 
am not without hope that this great improvement may ere long be 
brought to pass in this city. — Edwin P. Seaver, Superintendent of 
Schools, Boston. 

"^ Drawing, in one form or another, has won its way into nearly all 
schools in the older countries, and is making rapid progress in our 
own. While it is the universal language of handicraft, bringing the 
industrial ends of the earth together, just as the higher and finer arts 
express the feelings and sentiments of our common humanity, it has 
at the same time justified itself in all countries as a most valuable 



A PLEA FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 163 

the geometric sense of the pupils, to cultivate their per- 
ception of form, and to stimulate the interest of large 
classes of children who find little to enjoy in the tradi- 
tional studies of grammar, arithmetic, and geography. 

It is at this point that we part company with Dr. 
Dickinson. He would trust to the continued use of 
drawing and to the increased use of science-teaching to 
train the senses, to cultivate the habit of observation, to 
strengthen the judgment, and to make the hand and eye 
more ready and faithful servants of the mind. The use 
of tools he deprecates as injurious to the proper pur- 
poses and as disparaging to the dignity of the public 
schools; while he admits sewing and cooking only as 
burdens which the schools may be asked to carry for the 
general good. Most of us, on the contrary, believe that 
the use of tools in appropriate form and degree, and the 
teaching of cooking and sewing are as truly educational 
as any, even the most approved, of the familiar features 
of the public school ; that they supply desirable elements 

auxiliary to purely scholastic studies, for developing the intellect, 
and for widening and deepening the capacity and power of the indi- 
vidual. Nor would it be possible to estimate the value to the indus- 
tries of the world, of this general cultivation of the intellect and taste 
through drawing; and yet drawing is essentially a manual art. What- 
ever of mental discipline or cultivation of taste it offers can only 
come through the training of the hand as the medium. Little value 
would be derived by teaching drawing as a science without corre- 
sponding practice. It has its body of principles; but they can be 
better brought to the student's attention, and more clearly set forth, 
in connection with a well-arranged and progressive course in 
manipulation. 

The same good educational results will surely follow from the 
systematic teaching of other manual arts. — Professor J. D. Runkle. 



164 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

wLicli can be obtained at all, or which can be obtained 
as well, from no other source; and that they are not only 
compatible with the integrity and dignity of the school 
system, but that they promise greatly to increase the 
general interest in the schools, if not to become the very 
salvation of the school system itself; while the incidental 
advantages resulting therefrom, in raising the industrial 
quality of our people, in creating respect for labor, in 
quickening the sense of social decency, in securing a 
greater economy of the means and the resources of the 
very poor, and in promoting good citizenship generally, 
are, as we esteem them, beyond all price. 

First: While it is freely and gladly admitted that the 
objective study of natural science, by modern methods, 
affords an admirable training of the powers of percep- 
tion, of the habit of observation, of the faculty of judg- 
ment, it cannot be claimed that it does anything towards 
directing and strengthening the executive faculty, which 
is so important a factor of success in life; or that it gives 
any scope or play whatever to that creative or con- 
structive passion which is the highest and most useful 
instinct in the child's mind, but which is readily per- 
verted into a force for evil. 

Second : While the effect of science-teaching in gram- 
mar schools, is, theoretically, what has been above 
admitted, I believe it to be true that it is much more 
difficult to obtain good, fresh, original, spontaneous 
work in this direction than can be had in school exercises 
of the character we are proposing; and that, even when 



A PLEA FOE INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 165 

the best of teaching-talent can be secured, a smaller pro- 
portion of pupils will have their interest fuUj aroused 
and their mental activities fully enlisted by the study of 
natural science than by exercises in the mechanic arts, 
where the perceptive powers and the faculty of judg- 
ment are equally called into use, but where, also, the 
creative or constructive passion is brought into play, to 
furnish both object and impulse to the youthful student. 

Third: While the objective study of natural science 
tends strongly and tends directly towards moral earnest- 
ness, simplicity of character, and intellectual truthful- 
ness as contrasted with the cultivation of mnemonics, 
dialectics, and rhetoric, it cannot, I think, be claimed 
that it has any immediate and direct influence in remov- 
ing that snobbishness of feeling and that dislike and 
contempt for manual labor which are so unhappily 
prevalent among our half -educated classes; which are so 
injurious industrially, so dangerous socially and politi- 
cally, and which bear an enormous annual crop of 
ruined lives in the case of tens of thousands of the gradu- 
ates of our public schools who have been made too fine 
for manual labor, without having become qualified to 
take any higher or more useful places in the industrial 
order, and who thus come to swell, each year, the throng 
of useless and unhappy applicants for the comparatively 
few positions in shops, stores, and counting-houses, 
where a generally poor living may be obtained without 
soiling the fingers. 

On the other hand, no one, I think, can look upon a 



166 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

class of bright young boys working at the carpenter's 
bench or around the blacksmith's forge, their paper caps 
upon their heads, leather aprons and jean overalls pro- 
tecting their better clothes, their faces flushed with the 
excitement and delight of construction and creation, 
without having his heart glow within him at the spec- 
tacle, and without the serious conviction that this is as it 
should be ; that it is good for these boys and good for the 
State that they should learn to do such things, in the 
name of education and under the authority of the Com- 
monwealth.^ 

' First, It stimulates a love for intellectual honesty. It deals -with 
the substance, as well as with the shadow; it gives opportunity for 
primitive judgments; it shows in the concrete, in the most unmistak- 
able form, the vast difference between right and wrong; it substitutes 
personal experience, and the use of simple, forcible language, for 
the experience of others, expressed in high-sounding phrase. It as- 
sociates the deed with the thought, the real with the ideal, and lays 
the foundation for honesty in thought and in act. 

Second, The good moral effect of occupation is most marked. No 
boys were ever so busy as ours, in school and out. Every strong, 
healthy appetite finds its appropriate food. The variety of the daily 
programme, far from confusing, produces a balance of healthy inter- 
ests; and not only the boy's time, but his thoughts, are devoted to 
the work of the school. The correlation of drawing and shop-work 
with science and mathematical studies is exceedingly helpful on both 
sides, and parents testify to the absorption of our pupils in their 
work. Mothers and sisters are never tired of telling of the great con- 
venience of having in the house one who has common sense enough 
to use the universal tools and to keep things in order. The hands 
are rarely idle enough to allow the devil to get in his mischievous 
work. 

Third, A third moral benefit is self-respect, and a respect for 
honest, intelligent labor. A boy who sees nothing in manual labor 
but mere brute force despises both the labor and the laborer. To 
him all hand-work is drudgery, and all men who use their hands are 
to him equally uncultivated and unattractive. With the acquisition 



A FLEA FOE INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 167 

Fourth: When we come to the advantages to be de- 
rived by the community at large from the improvement 
in the industrial quality of its citizens, through the 
mechanical education of the whole body of our youth 
and their acquisition and mastery of the elements which 
underlie all mechanic arts, we reach ground made so 
familiar by recent discussion that it requires mention 
only in passing. To the industries of New England in 
especial this is a matter of transcendent importance. 
With a harsh climate and a sterile soil, producing few 
of the materials of its own manufactures, importing its 
cotton, wool, silk, and flax, without ores of the useful or 
the precious metals, without even coal for power, !New 
England must rely for its continued supremacy in 
manufactures upon the skill, energy, and foresight of 
its employing class, and upon dexterity, neatness of 
manipulation, care of materials, and mechanical apti- 
tude, on the part of its laborers. We cannot afford to 
tolerate a generation growing up, as Governor Ames has 
said in his inaugural message, in ignorance of the use of 
tools. 

Eifth: Among the incidental advantages to be ex- 
pected from the introduction of the proposed studies and 
exercises into our public schools, is one which has 
always seemed to me of great importance, but which is 

of skill in himself, comes a pride in its possession, and the ability 
and willingness to recognize it in his fellows. When once he appre- 
ciates skill in handicraft or in any manual art, he regards the pos- 
sessor of it with sympathy and respect. — Professor C. M. Woodward, 
Director of the Manual Training School of St. Louis. 



168 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

seldom alluded to in. discussion of this subject: namely, 
the maintenance of that sense of social decency which 
was once of so strong a savor in the life of ITew Eng- 
land. No one can pass through any of our villages to- 
day without being painfully struck by the contrast there 
afforded with the villages of a generation ago, when, 
almost without exception, every house was in order and 
in repair, the fence entire, the gate hung, the shutters 
in place, the sash fully glazed. Around the house the 
ground was graded and grassed, and almost everywhere 
some little garden-patch testified to the universal desire 
to have things neat, agreeable, and decent. The man 
then who kept his house and grounds squalid was little 
less than a public enemy. I need not spend words in 
showing how great is the contrast in many of our New 
England villages to-day. The men who, on every hand, 
allow their premises to remain shabby and squalid, a re- 
proach and blemish to the street, receive higher wages 
than our fathers ever dreamed of. The reason why they 
are content to live amid such miserable surroundings is 
because they have come from lands where nothing bet- 
ter was known, and, secondly, because they have not the 
dexterity and knowledge of the use of tools which would 
enable them to do those simple jobs of construction and 
rej)air which were to our fathers a matter of course. If 
we are to reform this state of things, which is alike dis- 
graceful and dangerous, and are to bring about a gradual 
return to that better and happier condition when a strong 
sense of social decency, inspiring and controlling all the 



A PLEA FOE INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 169 

members of the community, constituted the best possible 
guaranty of peace and order, of industry and frugality, 
we must teach the children of these men the use of tools; 
and we can do it in no other way than through the pub- 
lic schools. 

Sixth: On the subject of sewing and cooking there 
are many who can speak with much more intelligence 
and authority than myself; but 1 yield to no one in 
appreciation of the importance of these exercises as an 
integral part of the authoritative curriculum of our 
schools. So vast appear to me the advantages, social 
and physiological, to be derived from this source, that, 
were these exercises in no sense and in no degree educa- 
tional, I would still lay this duty upon the schools, as a 
burden to be carried for the general good, and I would 
employ the authority of the Commonwealth to train 
every girl within our borders in these all-essential domes- 
tic arts. If, as Horace Mann said, it is a crime for a 
boy here to grow up in ignorance of reading and writing, 
what sort of an offense is it, pray, for a girl here to grow 
up in ignorance of cooking and sewing? Think from 
what kind of homes tens of thousands of our children in 
the public schools every morning come — rooms dis- 
ordered and ill-kept, amid foul surroundings, presided 
over by a mother who cannot decently patch or darn a 
garment that is beginning to give way, and who knows 
only enough of cooking to take the perhaps abundant ma- 
terials supplied her and render them, by dirty and waste- 
ful processes, into disagreeable and indigestible messes, 



170 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

productive of dyspepsia and scrofula and provocative of 
a craving for strong drink. As a mere matter of public 
safety, can we afford to breed such a population in this 
Republic ? 

But, in fact, cooking and sewing in the public schools 
can be made, and, so far as they have been carried, have 
been made as truly and as strictly educational as the 
three R's of the primitive schoolhouse. Can anyone 
look into the rooms of the Winthrop School, when sew- 
ing is going on under its wise and benign master,^ with- 
out seeing that the powers and faculties of the children 
are most actively and harmoniously developing; that 
character is rapidly and happily forming, as hand, eye, 
and brain work together, all inspired by the acute de- 
light which the child always feels when creating some- 
thing useful or beautiful; that, in a word, education in 
the largest and best sense is here taking place ? Can any- 
one look into the Tennyson-street cooking school, with- 
out seeing, in the care and economy with which fuel and 
materials are used ; in the order and neatness which per- 
vade the room — not less the cupboards and lockers than 
its open parts; in the reasoning which precedes every 
operation, and the subsequent explanation of effects by 
well-approved causes, an example of the very best kind 
of education? 

Seventh: I have now reached the regular orthodox 

number in exposition, and have reserved to the last what 

^ Robert Swan, Esq., to whom Boston owes a debt it can never pay, 
for the part he has taken in introducing sewing into the public 
schools. 



A PLEA FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. IVI 

is, to my mind, the most important consideration. 
However strictly we may hold to the doctrine that the 
sole sufficient justification of school exercises is found in 
their educational character, we cannot deny that the 
maintenance of the schools themselves, and their ample 
endowment and support, are considerations which may 
properly, and which properly should, be admitted to 
qualify, so far as occasion exists, the organization of 
schools and the curriculum of their studies. 

I heartily believe that the introduction of the me- 
chanic arts, and of sewing and cooking, into the public 
schools will do much, very much, not only to increase 
the interest of the pupils in their work,^ as has been 
already indicated, but to win for the schools a far larger 
degree of interest on the part of parents and a far 
heartier support of the system on the part of the general 
community. 

Indications are not wanting that powerful elements 
of hostility are beginning to array themselves against 
free public schools,^ with compulsoiy attendance, main- 

1 It was thought also, that taking a part of a class away from its 
regular school work would result in more or less detriment to its 
progress in the prescribed studies. Here and there a complaint was 
made by the teacher of some second-class boy, that he was not doing 
his work well in his own room; but the pupil, in every case, was so 
anxious to remain in the " carpenter's class," that a word or two of 
warning was sufficient to bring his performance up to standard 
again. . . I consider that the results go far to prove that manual train- 
ing is so great a relief to the iteration of school work that it is a 
positive benefit, rather than a detriment, to the course in the other 
studies. — James A. Page, Master of the. Dwiglit School, Boston. 

' The importance and necessity for the extension of our system of 
public-school education, so as to include some form of industrial 



172 MANUAL education: 

tained under the authority and at the expense of the 
State; while, perhaps more dangerous still, appear signs 
of disaffection and indifference among vast numbers 
who have no reason to be actively hostile. I believe 
that nothing will go so directly to the root of this evil 
as the reforms which this meeting has been called to con- 
sider; and that, not less for the schools themselves than 
for the scholars, will there be found great virtue in the 
admission of the elements of industrial education into 
every schoolhouse of the State, however humble and 
however remote. 

training, has been constantly increasing during my twelve years' 
service on the Boston School Board. 

To ray mind, equity, morality, good citizenship, and the industrial 
welfare of tlie community, are all involved in this question. When 
we think of the difficulties placed in the way of learning trades, by 
the virtual abolition of the apprenticeship system, and by the fact 
that our educational methods train the boy away from the mechanic 
arts in a country with unequaled opportunities for their exercise, we 
must admit that, up to the present time, we have considered but one 
side of the general subject. Now, however, the growing pressure of 
public opinion demands a change, and I confidently look forward to 
the completion of our system by the introduction of technical 
schools. In these, the grammar-school boy, led by his inclination or 
his necessities, can be educated as thoroughly in the preparation for 
mechanical work and skilled labor, as his brother in the high and 
Latin schools is for business and the professions. — Dr. J. G. Blake, 
Boston. 



MANUAL EDUCATION IN URBAN 
COMMUNITIES 

1887 



Address before the National Educational As- 
sociation, AT Chicago, Jult 15, 1887. From the 
Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational 
Association, 1887. 



MANUAL EDUCATION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 

As we pass from rural districts and small villages to 
large towns and cities, the need of what is called manual 
education, or what I should prefer to call mechanical 
education, increases palpably and rapidly; while the 
difficulty and relative cost of instituting and maintaining 
the required services of instruction diminish in an almost 
equal ratio. 

In the country, the boy finds a hundred opportunities, 
alike at work and at play, for acquiring much of that 
which can be given to the city boy only by way of formal 
instruction. Whether in his daily stint of labor, upon 
the farm, about the house, the bam, the sheds, or in his 
sports or rambles, upon the village green, over the field, 
through the woods — the country boy has incessant occa- 
sion to use his hands and his eyes; to observe, to plan, 
to do. 

It would not become us, as teachers, to admit that 
what is thus done is as well done as it would be if the 
foundation were properly laid in systematic instruction; 
that the boy can, for himself, or under the guidance of 
older persons themselves untrained to teach, themselves 
largely unintelligent as to means and processes, often 
working by " rule of thumb " and pursuing purely tra- 
ditional methods — that the boy can, under such condi- 

175 



176 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

tions, either accumulate knowledge or acquire skill and 
training as well and rapidly as he would under good 
tuition. We all know that one may play at games or 
work at tasks for years, without learning to do either as 
well as might be accomplished in a single year under a 
true master, a master both of the special arts involved 
and of the greater art of teaching. No one can have 
widely observed mankind without being painfully im- 
pressed by the obtuseness and perverseness which cause 
advantages near at hand to be lost, the plainest reasons 
for the phenomena of daily life to be overlooked, the 
most natural and direct ways of doing things to be neg- 
lected for stupid and clumsy and wasteful methods, all 
from the lack of elementary instruction in first prin- 
ciples, and of the formation of habits of observation and 
reflection, under systematic tuition. 

Yet in spite of the deficiencies which remain, what 
the country boy enjoys in the way of training hand and 
eye to be true servants of the mind; what he enjoys in 
the way of opportunities and incentives for making the 
mind itself the real master of life, through a well- 
rounded and harmonious development of all the powers, 
through the creation of the spirit of self-reliance, 
through the exercise given to the constructive and 
executive faculty, is almost infinitely greater than that 
which falls to the lot of the unhappy city boy of to-day. 
Out of school, what has the latter to do with himself, his 
time, or the energy given him, as we are wont to say, for 
some good purpose, though it would puzzle the most de- 



MANUAL ED UCA TION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. HI 

voiit and the most ingenious to tell for what purpose 
energy should have been given to a boy condemned to 
live in a modem city ? 

Work he cannot, for, except in the rarest instances, 
there is nothing useful for him to do. No matter how 
poor or even how poverty-stricken his family, it would 
be almost impossible for him to contribute to the com- 
mon means. In the olden time, such a boy could have 
helped his father or mother to spin or to weave. To- 
day, one buying flax or cotton or wool to work upon, in 
the intervals of schooling, could not get back the cost of 
his material in the price of his product, sold in competi- 
tion with the output of the giant factory and its power 
looms. In the olden time, such a boy could have carved 
in wood or worked on metal, or have helped his father 
make furniture, boots, gloves, or hats in the family 
home. To-day, nearly every art of domestic manu- 
facture has utterly disappeared, leaving not a trace be- 
hind. It is almost impossible now for even the women 
of the family to find any work by which they can add the 
most trifling amount to the common means. 

So highly organized is modem industry, so exacting 
are its requirements, that no one wants the fragments 
of a boy's time, for any productive purpose. A lad who 
cannot give his whole day is not, in one case in a hun- 
dred, worth having around. 

Let us pause a moment to consider what this means. 
A generation ago, not in the country only, but in every 
city and town, there was an abundance of useful work 



1V8 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

to occupy the time and energy of almost every school- 
boy out of school. These tasks constituted a most use- 
ful part of his training. They wrought into the very 
fabric of his being the idea and sentiment of a common 
family interest ; they gave scope and play to the creative 
and constructive faculty; they trained eye and hand to 
accuracy and precision; they taught the child to respect 
toil and to value the fruits of toil; they sweetened the 
bread of poverty; they made the sleep of childhood 
sounder. To-day, under the new conditions of produc- 
tion, it would, in almost every city home, cost more to 
keep a boy usefully employed than to feed him in 
idleness. 

Do you say: " AVell then, let him play, if he cannot 
work " ? I answer that, in our modem cities, even out- 
door play, of any satisfactory sort, is scarcely practicable. 
Search the city of Boston on a pleasant Saturday after- 
noon ; and out of thousands of boys, who should be doing 
something with energy and enthusiasm, their muscles 
all strung, their blood tingling in their veins, you will 
not find one in fifty doing anything which would be even 
a poor caricature of country sport. On the famous 
Common, you will see two or three balls being pitched 
or knocked about, while a large crowd of idlers look on. 
In a few vacant and unfilled lots, you will find a very 
poor game of base-ball or foot-ball going on. Some 
scores of lads have, perhaps, had the moral courage and 
mental initiative to go upon tramps into the country. 
All tlie rest are either walking the streets, or loafing in 



MANUAL EDUCATION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 179 

the parks, or hanging about the house. Of this last — 
by far the greatest — class, some are lounging, moody, 
bored, and discontented; some are revenging their un- 
happy lot by pestering their mothers and the smaller 
children; some are further muddling their brains by 
reading or study, of which they have already had too 
much. 

Such and no greater are the opportunities and incen- 
tives afforded the city boy of to-day for acquiring knowl- 
edge of things, for training the perceptive powers, for 
forming habits of observation, for discriminating be- 
tween phenomena and interpreting their just signifi- 
cance, for exercising the constructive and creative 
faculty, which is the most godlike thing in man. This 
brief survey will, I trust, be held to justify my assertion 
that, as we pass from rural districts and small villages to 
large towns and cities, the need of what is called manual 
education, in connection with the school system, palp- 
ably and rapidly increases. 

On the other hand, the burden of instituting and 
maintaining instruction in the mechanic arts diminishes 
as we pass from rural to urban communities quite as 
rapidly as the need of such instruction increases. This 
is due, not alone to the comparative poverty of agricul- 
tural populations, although the inability of many dis- 
tricts of this class properly to support schools, even of 
the traditional type, constitutes one of the gravest edu- 
cational problems of the time. This result is in a much 
higher degree due to the concentration of population in 



180 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

commercial and manufacturing communities, allowing 
the same amount of apparatus and supplies, and tlie same 
amount of skilled service to do a vastly greater work of 
instruction than would be possible in rural districts. It 
is not necessary to contrast the small schoolhouses, 
widely scattered, which serve the purposes of an agri- 
cultural population, with the twelve-room buildings, 
thickly set, in which the children of our cities and large 
towns receive elementary instruction, in order to show 
the greatness of the advantage which would be enjoyed 
by communities of the class under consideration in the 
matter of manual or mechanical education. The dif- 
ference, in this respect, between city and country must 
be obvious on the merest mention. Where children, by 
thousands, are concentrated in narrow districts, the 
question of providing the means of instruction in the 
mechanic arts is little more than the question whether 
such instruction is itself desirable.* The technical 
teacher who, in the country, could reach only a few 
small classes, for a single lesson iif a week, would, in the 

' I think there is no city of ten thousand inhabitants in this State 
[Massachusetts] which could not within a year set on foot a high 
school of the mechanical arts, which should be either immediately 
connected with its high school or located at some short distance from 
it. according to the expense or other considerations involved. . . 
In those schools I think the high-school children from fourteen to 
eighteen should be ti-ained in carpentry and joinery, and in work at the 
forge and at the lathe; trained in the mechanic arts; taught to make 
things; taught to impose their ideas upon matter, and to compel it to 
take the form which they have chosen for it. — From Testimony bf fore 
the Committee of the Senate of the United States upon the Relations be- 
tween Labor and Capital, 1885. 



MANUAL ED UGA TION IN URBA N COMMUNITIES. 1 8 1 

city, find his power of instruction limited only by his 
own strength and vital force. The apparatus and tools 
which in the country could serve but a few score of 
pupils would, in the city, serve as many hundreds. 
Even the supplies, purchased at wholesale and requiring 
little transportation, would cost the city school board 
much less than the rural school committee. 

So great is the total effect of these differences of con- 
dition, that it may be safely said that a city of ten thou- 
sand inhabitants could provide instruction in a variety 
of mechanic arts, under the best teachers, with the 
choicest apparatus, tools, and machinery, and could 
carry its pupils from stage to stage through an extended 
mechanical education, at less expense than would be re- 
quired to give the same number of pupils, in rural dis- 
tricts, a rude course in a single art, under the cheapest 
arrangements that could be made as to teachers, tools, 
and supplies. 

The concurrence of the two conditions indicated, 
namely: the greater need of manual or mechanical edu- 
cation in cities and large towns, and the diminished cost 
of instituting and maintaining such a system of instruc- 
tion in communities of this class, and, I might add, the 
greater financial resources there available to do what- 
ever may be fairly determined to be for the good of the 
rising generation — this concurrence of favorable condi- 
tions seems to me to establish the expediency of begin- 
ning in our cities and large towns whatever it may be 
decided to undertake in this matter. Here it is the ma- 



182 MANUAL EDUCATION: 

cliinery should be earliest set up and put to working. 
Here it is we may most fully and conclusively determine 
tlie capabilities of the system, ascertain the unfortunate 
liabilities, if any, to which it is subject, and create that 
body of experience which is essential to its full and per- 
fect development. Here, too, it is we should train the 
teachers who will be needed for the extension of this 
kind of instruction, outwards, stage by stage, from more 
to less compact communities. 

Whether, within urban communities, the develop- 
m.ent of the system of manual education should be by a 
gradual extension downwards from the high school, or 
upwards from the grammar school, is a question deserv- 
ing the careful consideration of all interested in this 
subject, a question on which light may perhaps be 
thrown by experience. The most popular procedure at 
the present time, in promotion of manual education, 
appears to be the institution of high schools of the me- 
chanic arts, as in St. Louis, Chicago, and other Western 
cities, the question of such instruction in the grammar 
schools being left to the future. 

In Boston, in addition to a small private high school 
of mechanic arts,^ we have introduced instruction in car- 
pentry, to a limited extent, into the grammar schools. 

When Lady Hamilton asked the sailor who had 
brought her a message from Lord iSTelson, whether he 
would have a glass of ale, or a little rum, or should she 

' In 1894 was established the existing Mechanic Arts High School 
as a part of the public school system. — Ed. 



\ 



MANUAL EDUCATION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 183 

brew him a punch, Jack, with a proper pull at his fore- 
lock, replied, " Well, your ladyship, I'll take the ale 
now; and be sipping my grog while your ladyship mixes 
the punch." I am disposed to think that we should 
deal with this question of the introduction of manual 
education in our schools, in somewhat of Jack's rather 
grasping spirit; that we should take all we can get, and 
this as soon as possible. Not that I am anxious to 
hasten the complete result, namely, the universal intro- 
duction of manual instruction into our public schools 
for at least all scholars above the age of twelve ; not that 
I am sanguine of immediate success in whatever may be 
* to this end undertaken; not that I ove-rlook the prob- 
ability that some part of what may be attempted will 
result in failure ; but it seems to me that, where so great 
a task is before us, the sooner we get to work, some- 
where, somehow, — almost anywhere, anyhow, — the 
better. In such a case there is more waste in doing 
nothing than in many mistakes made in doing some- 
thing. This is not a situation to which applies Davy 
Crockett's maxim: first be sure you are right and then 
go ahead. The very thing we have to do is to make 
experiments, to create experience. 

We know we are right in our general principles. 
The best expert opinion coincides with the increasing 
conviction of the community, that the traditional cur- 
riculum of the schools needs to be essentially modified, 
through the introduction of studies and exercises which 
shall train eye and hand; which shall cultivate the per- 



184 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

ceptive faculties, so long and grievously neglected; 
which shall create a respect for manual skill and dex- 
terity and for taste in design; which shall afford scope 
and play for the creative and constructive instinct. 
Just what these studies and exercises shall be, in char- 
acter and order of succession, is to be determined by ex- 
periment rather than by forecast. The question is one 
which requires to be worked out rather than to be 
thought out. The most that is likely to be done in the 
immediate present will not be more than to accumulate 
experience, determining the direction which our efforts 
in this interest shall ultimately take. 

One thing seems reasonably well established, namely, 
that carpentry and wood-turning are the arts with which 
we may most advantageously begin with grammar-school 
pupils. Work in these lines is sure to interest both 
children an.d parents. It is easier to get competent 
teachers than in any other of the arts. The expense of 
machinery, tools and supplies comes fairly within the 
means of any urban community. The practical value 
of the acquirement of these arts is palpable to the least 
instructed mind. The last consideration is, however, 
one on which the advocates of manual training must not 
greatly dwell, since the strength of their position lies in 
the claim that such studies are, truly, purely, and highly, 
educational,^ being actually required, in addition to the 

' Industry, as such, 1ms, in my judgment, no place in the public 
schools, though industriousness is always in order there. The prime 
object of our school system is education, and it cannot be to any con- 
siderable extent diverted from that end without injury to the schools 



MANUAL EDUCATION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 185 

familiar studies of the public school, to secure the com- 
plete and harmonious development of the powers and 
faculties of the mind. 

That the introduction of these or any other mechanic 
arts into the grammar schools would give new direction 
and a fresh impulse to the study and practice of draw- 
ing, is certain. I agree with Dr. Runkle, that drawing 
in the public schools, not directed upon work in the me- 
chanic arts, is not one-half of what it would be as an edu- 
cational force had it a definite object. I look with 
confidence to see this most interesting and promising 
study receive a new inspiration wherever the use of tools 
is introduced into the schools. 

One thing more I will say regarding the inauguration 

themselves and to the community at large. Indeed, it would scarcely 
be possible to do a greater wrong to the major part of our public- 
school children than by taking any appreciable share of the little 
time they have for the development and training of their intellectual 
powers, for the purpose of applying it to the mere means of bread- 
winning or money-making. 

But while I thus hold strongly to the strictly educational charac- 
ter of school work, I believe that the courses of study in the schools 
of New England have been, and, though in a diminishing degree, 
still are, incomplete and inadequate to the demands of a full and 
symmetrical education. I believe that these deficiencies have induced 
a one-sided development of mind and character; have led to the set- 
ting up of false standards of what is admirable and desirable in life; 
have caused to be magnified glibness of speech, force of declamation, 
readiness in recitation, and retentiveness of memory, at the expense 
of far more useful faculties, qualities, or habits, namely, soundness of 
judgment, clearness of perception, the habit of observation, the cre- 
ative instinct, the executive faculty. 

Briefly speaking, my project of reform, in schools for boys, would 
be as follows: carry the best-approved methods of the kindergarten 
upward through the primary grades, as far as the means and re- 
sources of each school, for itself, will allow; introduce more and 



186 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

of this system, which is, that the friends of the new edu- 
cation should refuse to accept less than two exercises of 
an hour and a half or two hours each, per week, in the 
mechanic arts. Wherever committee-men and teachers 
are not prepared to grant so much as this, cannot see 
their way to clear at least this amount of space for the 
mechanic arts, it would be well, in my judgment, though 
I speak with some hesitation, to await a more fortunate 
time and a better disposition on the part of those who 
control the schools. 

Whatever other arts may, in the development of this 
system, come to be associated with carpentry and wood- 



more the study of form, color, texture, structure, and organization, 
by means of natural objects in the hands of pupils and teachers, 
stimulating and encouraging the pupils, more and more as their fac- 
ulties are developed, to make observations for themselves at their 
play or at their work, and to bring the results back to the schoolroom, 
for comparison, for criticism, for discussion; at the age of twelve, or 
thereabouts, introduce semi-weekly exercises with tools, preferably 
wood-working tools, and in clay-modeling, for the cultivation of the 
sense of form, for the training of the eye and hand, and for gaining 
the power to give material shape to conceptions of the mind ; at four- 
teen years of age, or thereabouts, introduce exercises in metal-work- 
ing, and require every boy who passes through one of the high 
schools of the State to become a good mechanic, not at all for the 
sake of his practicing a mechanical avocation, but to make him a 
better equipped, more capable, and more useful man. 

All this could not be done at once. The system would have to be 
introduced gradually and tentatively. Probably the more natural 
order would be that the system should extend from the higher 
schools downward, and from the city schools outward. Much 
would be learned in the course of the gradual development of such 
a system; and the best-conceived programme would doubtless require 
considerable modifications, as the result of experience. — F'rom a 
Symposium: " What Industry, if any, can pi-ofitably be introduced 
into Country Schools?" in " Science," April 15, 1887. 



MANUAL EDUCATION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 187 

turning in the grammar schools, it appears to me that, 
at the very beginning, we may demand a complete 
course of both wood- and metal-working for that smaller 
number of advanced pupils who go forward into the 
high school. If it is for the interest of the State that 
these young persons shall, at the public expense, be 
further educated and cultivated on one side of their 
minds, it is not equally, but doubly, desirable that the 
education and cultivation of their other powers and 
faculties should be kept up in the high school. It is 
little less than a shame that we should graduate from 
these schools pupils who are highly accomplished in lan- 
guage, composition, and declamation, but are less keen 
in perception, less careful in observation, weaker in 
practical judgment, with less of visual accuracy, less of 
manual dexterity, less of the executive faculty — the 
power, that is, of doing things instead of merely think- 
ing about them, talking about them, and writing about 
them — than the children of the ordinary ungraded dis- 
trict school. 

Whatever views one may hold of the mutual relations 
of the child and the State in the grammar school, it can 
be gainsaid by no one that, if the community is to be 
called upon to carry the more favored children forward, 
through long and expensive courses of advanced educa- 
tion and training, those men who, on behalf of the com- 
munity, direct the schools of this class have the absolute 
right to impose terms and conditions, to exact and to 
withhold whatever the public interest may require. 



188 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

Cherishing the views I do as to what constitutes a com- 
plete education, I would allow no pupil to graduate from 
a high school who was not as proficient and exact in me- 
chanical as in grammatical exercises; I would not make 
myself responsible for adding to the number of youth 
who have been trained in description, without having 
been taught to observe the things they should describe; 
who have spent years in the art of rhetorical elaboration 
and ornamentation, without acquiring any adequate 
body and substance upon which to exercise those arts; 
who are clever in dialectics and declamation, but pur- 
blind in perception and feeble in execution; great at 
second-hand knowledge, but confused and diffident when 
thrown upon their own resources; skillful with the pen, 
but using any other tool awkwardly and ignorantly. 

The mischief we can possibly do, through a one-sided 
education, to those who stop short with the grammar 
school is, fortunately, limited. These children, escap- 
ing from tuition before they have got their growth and 
going at once to work, have an opportunity to cure in 
part the faults and to supply in part the deficiencies of 
their education. That work, of course, does them far 
less good, and they do it far less well, than if the founda- 
tion had been laid in early youth, under proper guidance 
and instruction. Yet, at least, they are saved from 
growing up and growing out all on one side, like the un- 
happy youth who are destined to go on, for three or 
seven years more, rehearsing the opinions of others; 
memorizing facts ascertained by others; practicing a 



MANUAL EDUCATION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 189 

simulated passion in declamation, an artificial taste in 
composition; making much of grammatical niceties, 
painfully polisliing periods without much regard to the 
thoughts these should inclose; going over and over a 
weary round of second-hand information and second- 
hand ideas, and acquiring a few purely conventional 
accomplishments. 

We hear much of the contempt of so-called self-made 
men toward scholars; of their distrust, in practical mat- 
ters, of school-made and book-read men. Doubtless 
some part of this feeling is of vulgar origin, due to 
jealousy, envy, or ignorance; but a far better part I be- 
lieve to be perfectly just, arising from a correct appre- 
hension of the natural effects of long-continued study 
and exercise within the traditional lines of high school 
and college instruction, producing a disposition to hesi- 
tate, to procrastinate, to multiply distinctions, to refine 
in preparation, to stand shivering on the verge of action. 
Doubtless, many school- and college-bred men, when 
thrown into action, are found to have enough of robust 
manhood to overcome the ill effects of their early train- 
ing, especially if in school or college they were not very- 
good scholars. But would it not be better from the first 
to associate with the dialectical, grammatical, and rhe- 
torical exercises of our schools and with the perhaps 
necessary acquisition of much mere gazetteer, cyclo- 
pedia, and dictionary information, studies and exercises 
which shall not only prevent the formation of distinctly 
bad habits of mind and will, but shall positively develop 



190 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

those powers and faculties wliicli tlie very first access to 
the duties of professional and business life shows to be 
the most useful of our endowments? 

I believe that the introduction of the new studies and 
exercises which we are advocating will not prove a mere 
addition to the work of the school or college. I believe 
it win also profoundly modify the instruction given 
within traditional lines. Boys and young men who 
have learned to observe for themselves, to acquire knowl- 
edge at first hand, to give effect to their purposes and 
form to their ideas; who have been accustomed to im- 
pose their will upon matter and to make it take shape to 
suit their intellectual conceptions; who know how to 
project, to plan, to execute; will have little patience with 
much that makes up the traditional curriculum. They 
will demand to be brought face to face with facts. 
They will insist upon going to the bottom of any matter 
they have to deal with. That genuine intellectual 
honesty, which is the first fruit of the objective study of 
concrete things, will make them scorn to defend, in dia- 
lectical and rhetorical practice, theses which they do 
not thoroughly believe. They will grudge every hour 
spent in memorizing matters for which they can at any 
time resort to the gazetteer or cyclopedia. It will be 
hard to impose on such students with sounding names, 
deceive them with sophistries, or bear them down by 
authority. They will care much for principles; little 
for the manner in which these may be dressed up for 
effect, or tricked out for public admiration. 



MANUAL ED UCA TION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 1 9 1 

The access of bodies of students of this character can- 
not but profoundly modify the subjects and the methods 
of instruction of any school they enter; and every 
change wrought by the infusion of such a spirit will be 
sure to prove of benefit to scholar and to school alike. 

I have, thus far, spoken only of the educational needs 
of our boys. How far the traditional courses of study 
shall be modified in the case of girls is a nicer question, 
respecting which it will not be unreasonable to await 
light from whatever experiments may be tried with chil- 
dren of the other sex. It would seem to be the dictate 
of wisdom to solve the easier part of the problem first. 

That young women may become heartily interested 
in studies and exercises in the mechanic arts and may 
make themselves proficient at least in carpentry, is 
established by our experience at the normal schools of 
Bridgewater and Salem, Massachusetts. That such in- 
struction, for those who are to become teachers, yields 
a professional accomplishment of prime importance, 
enabling the schoolmistress, especially in the rural dis- 
tricts, to make and repair much of the apparatus for 
teaching natural and physical science, is evident. This 
work cannot be too strongly pressed in all normal and 
training schools. 

As regards grammar schools, I confess that my ambi- 
tion would be satisfied, for the present, by the introduc- 
tion of sewing and cooking, imtil the full capabilities of 
these two kinds of school exercises should be fully devel- 
oped and fairly tested. The triumphant success which 



192 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

has attended the extension of sewing through the lower 
grades of the grammar schools of Boston, and the ad- 
mirable results which have been attained, so far as the 
cutting, fitting, and making of plain garments have 
been introduced into the upper grades of three districts,^ 
have put this school exercise beyond the stage of experi- 
ment. Ko intelligent and candid person, who thor- 
oughly knows the work done in this department, any 
longer questions either the practical utility of the 
results achieved or the appropriateness of sewing in 
the school curriculum, as a strictly educational 
agency. 

Of equal promise of good to our citizenship and, as I 
believe, not less suited to the prime purposes of instruc- 
tion, is the newer school exercise of cooking. So tran- 
scendent are the social, sanitary, and economic advantages 
of instruction in this art, in enabling the very poor to 
husband their resources, in preserving the health of the 
community, in removing baleful and destructive appe- 
tites, in promoting the comfort and decency of the 
family home, that any educator would be abundantly 
justified, were that necessary, in making this an excep- 
tion to the rule that all school exercises should be dis- 
tinctly educational. Especially in view of the great 
and painful change in our citizenship which is making 
such rapid progress before our eyes, does it become a 
patriotic duty to seize upon the only opportunity which 
the State enjoys of reaching the members of the rising 
' Sewing is now a part of the course. — Ed. 



MANUAL EDUCATION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 193 

generation, and to employ some portion of the time of 
the children in the pubKc schools for instruction in do- 
mestic economy and in the art of preparing food. The 
practical value of such an accomplishment, in the degree 
in which it may be acquired in a single brief course, is 
incontestably greater, to girls coming from poor and 
squalid homes, as so many tens of thousands do, than all 
else they could possibly learn in school, beyond reading, 
writing, and plain ciphering. The importance to the 
State of such girls acquiring this art, is, from a sanitary 
point of view, from an economic point of view, and from 
a political point of view, greater even than the impor- 
tance of the elementary knowledge just referred to. 
We are threatened to-day, in the United States, with a 
lowering of the standard of living and with an impair- 
ment of the sense of social decency which would together 
constitute a greater industrial and political evil than we 
have known. All the letters that ever were taught in 
our public schools will not do so much to oppose and 
counteract these unfortunate liabilities as the two arts 
of sewing and cooking, properly taught under the au- 
thority of the State. 

But we are not driven to defend the introduction of 
cooking into the public schools as an invasion of the 
proper field of education, justified by dire necessity. 
l^o one can spend an hour in the cooking schools of Bos- 
ton, as they have been maintained, first through the 
philanthropic enterprise of Mrs. Hemenway, and after- 
wards at the expense of the city, without being impressed 



194 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

by the very high educational value of the instruction 
given. 

As a gi'eat object lesson in chemistry; as a means of 
promoting care, patience, and forethought; as a study of 
cause and effect; as a medium of conveying useful infor- 
mation, irrespective altogether of the practical value of 
the art acquired ; the short course, which alone the means 
at command allowed to be given to each class of girls, 
has constituted, I do not doubt, the best body of purely 
educational training which any girl of all those classes 
ever experienced within the same number of hours. 

I will mention but a single point. The very large 
range in the Tennyson-street cooking school was, during 
the last school year, ready to cook any of the dishes that 
might be prepared by the pupils, from half-past nine in 
the morning until half-past four in the afternoon, for 
five days in the week, for thirty-eight weeks. Fires 
were made, the dampers and drafts were controlled by 
the pupils under the direction of the teacher. The 
amount of coal consumed in this time was considerably 
less than two tons. Now, if any unhappy householder 
here present will compare this expenditure of fuel with 
what takes place in his own kitchen, he cannot fail to 
be impressed by a sense of the prudence, patience, care, 
forethought, intelligence, and skill involved in keeping 
up such a service at so small a cost. If this be not edu- 
cational, pray what is education? And what is true of 
this is equally true of all the other exercises in the cook- 
ing school, under proper tuition. 



THE RELATION OF MANUAL TRAINING 

TO CERTAIN MENTAL DEFECTS 

1895 



Rkad at the Sixtt-pifth Annual Meeting op the 
American Institute of Instruction, July 9, 1895. 
From Journal of Proceedings of the American Institute of 
Instruction, 1895. 



THE EELATION OF MANUAL TEAINING TO 
CERTAIN MENTAL DEFECTS. 

The full title of my paper is: Manual training as au 
agent in the diagnosis and treatment of certain mental 
defects; but that statement exaggerates its importance, 
since what I shall have to say on the subject is merely in 
the nature of suggestion and inquiry. I have, in fact, 
no results to announce; no formed conclusions, even, to 
express. My mind has been drawn within the last few 
years to certain phenomena which appear to intimate the 
probability, first, that mental defects, seriously interfer- 
ing with progress in study and with success in the affairs 
of life, may exist without being suspected by parents, 
teachers, or play- and school-mates; secondly, that such 
defects do in fact exist far more frequently than is popu- 
larly supposed. Brought to these conclusions, it has 
seemed to me that manual training, — or the practice of 
the mechanic arts as a means of instruction, — while use- 
ful in the case of students of normal minds and of the 
best abilities, may have an additional and most impor- 
tant use as an agent, first for discovering and then for 
treating, these defects. Let me ask your attention, 
somewhat at length, to incidents which have suggested 
the probability that parent and teacher and play- or 
school-mate have often to do with wholly unsuspected 
defects of mental constitution and organization. 



198 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

A few years ago I was called upon to act as the chair- 
man of a committee to examine candidates for West 
Point, in one of the congressional districts of Massa- 
chusetts. The thirteen candidates were subjected to the 
usual examination for physical soundness; and all satis- 
factorily passed the test. When we came, however, to 
the test for color-blindness, a young man whom I had re- 
marked as one of the most spirited, intelligent, and fine- 
looking of the group, advanced to the table and threw 
the skeins of colored worsteds into groups so absurd as 
to seem actually impossible. One moment sufficed to 
show that he was wholly out of the competition and en- 
tirely ineligible for military service. Here was a young 
man, evidently of more than usual intelligence and 
ability, who had gone to the age of seventeen or eighteen 
without any suspicion on his own part that he had not 
the normal sense respecting color. His parents and the 
other members of his family from childhood had been 
accustomed to observe him in his dealings inside the 
house with colored objects; his playmates had doubtless 
on countless occasions made reference to the color of 
objects; and yet he had gone through all this, day after 
day and year after year, without having his suspicion 
excited that what they saw he did not see, and he had 
taken the trouble to prepare himself for an examination 
the results of which might affect his whole life, without 
the faintest apprehension of his disability. I remember 
to have heard of a naval officer who went through the 
war and was afterwards discharged from the service for a 



MANUAL TRAINING AND MENTAL DEFECTS. 199 

long-unsuspected color-blindness wliicli was almost total; 
yet for years he had been dealing with color signals and 
colored flags and ensigns. It is well known that the 
color tests introduced by boards of railroad commis- 
sioners in several States have resulted in throwing out 
not a few locomotive engineers of large experience who 
had never discovered or suspected their deficiencies. 

Take another instance : a gentleman came to my ofl&ce 
to introduce his son as an applicant for admission to the 
Institute of Technology. The young man had received 
an appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis; 
had passed the text-book examination; had passed the 
ordinary physical examination; had gone through the 
test for color-blindness; and then it was found that an 
object which he could see distinctly with one eye at the 
distance of twenty-seven feet had to be brought within 
eight feet to be seen at all with the other eye. During 
all his childhood and boyhood he had never for a mo- 
ment suspected the existence of this defect. Let me 
recite still another case. A lady of my acquaintance 
had very charitably taken into her household, as a serv- 
ant, a young woman who was subject to severe nervous 
disorder. She could get employment under no ordi- 
nary circumstances; and the lady I refer to had under- 
taken to carry a part of her burden by employing her. 
After the lapse of some weeks, this lady, who had often 
observed the servant very closely and curiously when 
engaged at her work, especially while sewing, broke out 
with an exclamation, " Jane, do you really see any- 



200 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

thing? " The girl looked up in great surprise. " Why, 
yes, I see ,perf ectly well." Her mistress rejoined, " I 
do not believe that you see anything as we see it." An 
examination by an oculist followed; and it was ascer- 
tained that the girl's entire disorder proceeded from 
eyes that were simply a mass of defects and distortions. 
With treatment of her eyes, the nervous affection in time 
ceased. I related this to one of the most distinguished 
medical men in New York, for many years a professor 
in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, who re- 
joined: "There are many such cases. My son, a cap- 
tain in the United States army, for years suffered the 
greatest agony from pains in his head and the back of 
his neck, before he discovered that the whole trouble was 
due to defects of vision." 

I might go on for a long time enumerating similar 
instances which have come under my observation; but 
what has been said will suffice to justify the inquiry, 
whether, if such defects, in such degrees, can exist in 
respect to matters so objective and so completely open 
to observation and to examination, it is not probable that 
defects of mental constitution and organization, of the 
gravest nature, are found in every schoolroom and in 
every large family; and that much of what the parent or 
the teacher takes to be the result of indifference, willful- 
ness, or neglect, is due to mental distortions, perversions, 
obliquities, lesions, and breaches of continuity, which 
have as distinct and decided an effect in preventing the 
proper and normal action of the child's mind upon what 



MANUAL TBAININQ AND MENTAL DEFECTS. 201 

is sought to be presented to it, as would the most object- 
ive deficiencies and injuries to tlie organs of sense. If 
parents and teachers and playmates and schoolmates can 
fail, through years, to see, or even to suspect, the exist- 
ence of color-blindness, for example, is it not possible, 
and even highly probable, that defects more deeply 
seated and of a more obscure character are the cause of 
no small part of the failures of the schoolroom? 

In connection with the preparation of this paper, a 
Boston physician has told me of a case recently com- 
ing under his knowledge where a young man had gradu- 
ally become almost totally deaf through the slow process 
of the disease called adenoids, without his father, a prac- 
ticing physician, suspecting the existence of the trouble 
until a late stage of the deafness had been reached. 
ITow, in the case of such a child, whatever is said loudly 
and distinctly is heard. The moment the teacher's voice 
drops below a certain point, or her back is turned, or her 
speech becomes hurried and confused, the child loses all 
or a part of what is uttered. Some thing he makes out ; 
perhaps by suggestion from what he has caught, perhaps 
by observation of the teacher's lips or gestures; some 
other thing he drops entirely; a third thing, still, he gets 
wrong. The result is partial failure in his work. He 
does not understand the true cause. His teacher does 
not suspect it. In the same way, there must be in- 
stances of mental defects where a more than usual effort 
on the part of the teacher, a more than usual degree of 
attention on the part of the pupil, enable the current of 



202 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

thought to jump the broken wire and pass to its object; 
but any slackening of effort on the part of the teacher, 
or of attention on the part of the pupil, allows the cur- 
rent to become dispersed and to remain without effect. 

It is not for a moment supposed that the thought 
above presented is not familiar to all students of the 
mind and to all teachers of youth. The only contribu- 
tion which I can hope to make, is in urging the con- 
sideration that mental defects corresponding to the 
defects in the organs of sense of which illustrations have 
been given, are vastly more frequent than we have been 
accustomed to believe and demand greater attention 
from us in dealing with individual pupils ; and, secondly, 
that we have in manual training an agent for a diagnosis 
of some, at least, of these defects and, though doubtless 
in a lower degree, for a treatment of them. We go into 
an orthopedic hospital and our very souls are torn with 
the spectacle of distortion and perversion and deformity 
which we there witness on every hand; but we comfort 
ourselves by saying, " Thank God ! it is only one child 
in a hundred who is thus afflicted." For my part I be- 
lieve that the cases of mental distortion, perversion, 
and deformity are far, far more frequent; and I cannot 
help believing that it is to such unsuspected disabilities 
and infirmities of the pupil that we owe a very large part 
of the failures of the schoolroom which pass for instances 
of heedlessness, willfulness, and even positively bad 
purpose. 

If, then, it is reasonable to believe that defects of men- 



MANUAL TRAINING AND MENTAL DEFECTS. 203 

tal constitution and organization, corresponding to 
defects in the organs of sense, do exist in regard to any- 
large part of our school children, it seems to me clear 
that we have in manual training, so called, — that is, the 
systematic practice of the mechanic arts in connection 
with drawing, as a means of school instruction, — a very 
important agent, at least for their discovery. 

If to the traditional studies we add manual training, 
we have not only another test of application and 
capacity — a thing in itself of great importance, inas- 
much as, by bringing in a new kind of test, we may 
largely correct the errors of the test afforded by text- 
book studies merely — but we have a test peculiarly 
suited to bring out the cause of any degree of failure in 
the performance of work. In the first place, the results 
of good or bad work with tools and upon materials can 
be measured and gauged and " sized up " with an accu- 
racy which is not attainable in estimating the character 
of the work done in most of the traditional studies of the 
schoolroom. The teacher can see exactly in what de- 
gree the child has failed, and the child can see it for 
himself, which is far from being always the case with 
recitations and examinations. Not only so, but the 
teacher, as I believe, finds out much more nearly the 
cause of failure in such work. If there is any tendency 
to misunderstand instructions and directions ; if there are 
any defects in the child's organs of sense or any broken 
wires in his mind, a penetrating teacher ought to be able, 
by repeated experiment, to ascertain the fact. The ob- 



204 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

jective character of the work, the closeness with which 
the results can be measured and gauged and criticised, 
and especially the aid derived by the teacher from the 
fact that the pupil is almost invariably desirous, and de- 
sirous in a high degree, of doing his shop-work perfectly, 
all these combine, it appears to me, to make certain that 
a child will not pass through any very long course of 
study, in a school where such exercises are systematically 
conducted, without the discovery of any physical or 
mental defect which may exist. I do not mean to say 
that in all cases, or even in the majority of cases, the 
seat of the trouble will be precisely hit upon; but at 
least enough will be learned to give the pupil fair warn- 
ing that he does suffer from some disability which he 
must make special effort to overcome; at least enough 
will be learned to put pupil and teacher in a bet- 
ter relation of mutual understanding and mutual 
respect. 

Should the manual training exercises disclose defects 
of mental constitution and organization, I believe that 
these same exercises may be used by the teacher most 
directly and beneficially in the treatment of such defects. 
Even though the teacher should not be so gifted as to be 
able to make the pupil's work discover the cause of total 
or partial failure, or of special weaknesses or infirmities, 
I still believe that the mere practice of the mechanic arts 
is the best possible regimen and gymnastic to which a 
mind in any degree falling off from the normal, or suffer- 
ing from any perversions or deformities, can be sub- 



MANUAL TBAINING AND MENTAL DEFECTS. 205 

jected. What orthopedic surgery is to the body, such, 
I believe, manual training in childhood is to the mind. 
I care comparatively little for its influence upon eye or 
hand. Its chief work in my view is educational; and 
in that educational work I place foremost its power of 
rectifying the mind itself, of straightening the crooked 
limb, — so to speak, — of strengthening the weak joint, 
of healing the lesion which, if not cured, will proceed 
to deep and irreparable injury. ISTot one of us but has 
seen seemingly hopeless cases of deformity and weak- 
ness in childhood completely cured by the splints, the 
massage, the fomentations, and the heroic surgery of the 
orthopedist. As I write, I recall the images of school- 
mates and playmates doomed apparently to hopeless 
suffering and weakness, who are, to-day, by reason of 
such treatment, straight, vigorous, and comely beyond 
the standard of their race. A benefit similar in kind 
can be wrought, I believe, in the case of many children 
who enter our schools suffering from inherited and ac- 
quired defects of mental constitution and organization, 
by the judicious and intelligent use of the mechanic 
arts as educational instruments. I am not speaking for 
the more gifted and fortunate of our pupils, though 
entertaining the strong conviction that manual training 
properly applied in schools, freed from the crudities and 
errors incidental to the introduction of any new system, 
will prove of great educational benefit to the brightest 
and best of our scholars. I am speaking for a great 
body of children who, but for this new instrument of 



206 MANUAL EDUCATION. 

education in the hands of intelligent and skillful teach- 
ers, may go into life with serious mental defects uncor- 
rected, and even unsuspected; defects which will grow 
more serious and more hopeless with the progress of 
time and with experience of life. 



THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC 



ARITHMETIC IN THE PRIMARY AND 
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 

1887 



Addrt:ss before the School Committee op the 
City of Boston, April 12, 1887. Published as School 
Document No. 9, 1887. 



Largely because of President Walker's vigorous 
efforts, more rational methods of teaching arith- 
metic have been followed in Boston during and 
since his service upon the School Committee. 



ARITHMETIC IN THE PEIMARY AND GRAMMAR 
SCHOOLS. 

When I moved, last winter, the resolution which has 
become the subject of the report of the Committee on 
Examinations this evening, it was without any purpose 
of taking part in the inquiry proposed. But the course 
of public discussion since that time, and my own appoint- 
ment to the Committee on Examinations, have seemed 
to require something to be said by me regarding those 
features of the study of arithmetic in our common 
schools to which exception has been taken, and which 
the Committee, through their chairman, have unani- 
mously recommended should be reformed in part or re- 
formed altogether.^ And, first, it may be said that, if 
there be any reason whatsoever for believing that the 
course in arithmetic can be simplified and shortened, the 
matter is not one of slight importance. The cry of over- 
work frequently comes from pupils, parents, and phy- 
sicians who are undoubtedly sincere, even if mistaken in 
this view; while if we reject the plea of overwork and 
conclude that the amount of study required of our chil- 
dren is, as an aggregate, not too large, we still have to 
encounter the almost unanimous complaint of teachers 
that studies are set down in the official courses which 

' These recommendations appear, in substance, at the beginning of 
the following address. See p. 235 infra. — Ed. 

209 



210 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

they have not time to teach as they ought to be taught, 
many going so far as to say that it would be better that 
some of these subjects should not be broached at all if 
they are not to be dealt with more thoroughly and 
systematically than is possible at present with the 
time allowed. If, then, the course in arithmetic can 
be abridged, without injury on that side of our public 
schools, we know very well what to do with the time so 
released. It may be applied, in the discretion of the 
School Board, either to relieve the pupils from the gen- 
eral strain of their work, or to allow the further cultiva- 
tion of natural science, or to afford additional practice 
in the art of observation, or to make way for the new 
mechanical and industrial exercises demanded by so 
many of our citizens. 

Let me not be understood as disparaging the impor- 
tance of the proper study of arithmetic in our public 
schools. 

'Eo one has a higher appreciation of the vital, practical 
importance of having our children taught to perform 
ordinary arithmetical operations with absolute accuracy 
and with a good degree of facility. Indeed, it is one of 
the gravest accusations brought against our public 
schools, as at present administered, that the old-fashioned 
readiness and correctness of " ciphering " have been, to 
a large degree, sacrificed by the methods which it is now 
proposed to reform. A false arithmetic has grown up 
and has largely crowded out of place that true arithmetic 
which is nothing but the art of numbers. But to this 



ARITHMETIC IN TEE COMMON SCHOOLS. 2 1 1 

point there will be a more fitting occasion to advert 
further on. The question as to the amount of arith- 
metical study at present desirable cannot be properly 
understood mthout reference to the courses of study in 
our schools a generation ago. At that time, with the 
whole week, excepting only Saturday afternoon, at the 
disposal of the teacher, the studies in the district school 
were few and simple. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, 
a little grammar, and a little political geography, made 
up substantially the course of study. In this condition 
there was not only no reason to scrutinize carefully the 
amount of time used for arithmetic, but that study was 
naturally and properly looked to for a considerable part 
of the mental training of the child. Increasingly, 
within the last thirty, twenty, and ten years, new studies 
in great variety have been introduced into our school 
courses, some of which are better suited for the purposes 
of intellectual training than is arithmetic itself. 

Thus we have, in addition to the simple political 
geography of an earlier day, the extended study of 
physical geography, rising into what were once the mys- 
teries of meteorology. 

In illustration of this point, allow me to quote from 
the official course of study, as revised and simplified in 
1885: 

Class IV. (Three hours a week). — Second stage of the study of 
geography. 1. Study of the earth as a globe; simple illustrations 
and statements with reference to form; size; meridians and parallels, 
with their use; motions, and their effects; zones, with their charac- 
teristics; winds and ocean currents ; climate as affecting the life of 
man (occupations, manners, customs, etc.). 



212 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

2. Physical features and conditions of North America, South 
America, and Europe studied and compared; position on the globe; 
position relative to other grand divisions; size; form; surface; drain- 
age; climate; life (vegetable, animal, human); regions adapted to 
mining, agriculture, etc.; natural advantages of cities; comparison of 
physical features and conditions of one grand division with those of 
other grand divisions. Map-drawing as the study of each grand 
division proceeds. Other grand divisions to be studied if there be 
time. 

Such are the subjects now prescribed for our children 
of eleven and twelve years of age. After the comple- 
tion of this body of study, the child has still three years 
of geographical study before graduating from the gram- 
mar school. Again, we have a large body of elemen- 
tary science, extended through the nine years of the pri- 
mary and grammar schools, regarding which I will only 
quote the curriculum of two years: 

Class II. (One hour and thirty minutes a week). — Physiology and 
hygiene. 

1. Growth and renewal of parts of the body, how secured. 

(a) The digestive apparatus and digestion. Food, the quality and 
quantity of, etc. 

(b) Circulation, the organs of. The blood as a circulating medium. 

(c) Respiration, the organs of . Ventilation. The vocal apparatus. 

2. (a) The digestive organs of man and other animals, compared. 
(b) Their modes of breathing, compared, (c) The amount of animal 
heat, compared. 

Class I. (Two hours a week). — Physics. Common facts learned 
from observation and experiment, in regard to as many of the follow- 
ing topics as the assigned time will allow: 1, matter, its properties, 
its three states; 2, motion and force, laws of motion; 3, gravitation: 
equilibrium, pendulum; 4, lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined 
plane, wedge, screw; 5, liquid pressure; specific gravity; 6. atmos- 
pheric pressure; barometer, pumps, siphon; 7, electricity, frictional 
and current; conductors, magnetism, compass, magnetic telegraph; 
8, sound; pitch of sounds, echoes, acoustic tubes; 9, heat; diffusion, 
effects, thermometers; 10, light; reflection, refraction, lenses, solar 
spectrum, color. 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 213 

But these are not all tlie new subjects to which pupils 
are now required to give their time and attention. In 
addition to the old-fashioned " parsing," with an occa- 
sional composition, we now have studies in English 
literature and the history of the English language jus- 
tifying, it would appear, such questions on examination 
as " changes in the English language from the time of 
the [N^onnan conquest to the death of Chaucer," — a 
question unknown to the high school and preparatory- 
academy of a generation ago, and even to the earlier 
years of the college curriculum. Moreover, we have 
music and drawing pursued systematically and at great 
length through the entire coui'se of the primary 
and the grammar school. It is not necessary to take 
the time of the committee for further enumeration of 
subjects of study which have been forced into the 
school week, which, far from being longer than it was 
a generation ago, is shorter by one-half of Satur- 
day. It is evident that, if so much must come in, 
something must go out to make room for it; and, 
secondly, that we have, in these new studies, means for 
much of that training of the child's powers which our 
fathers looked to arithmetic to accomplish. " That 
mathematics," says Sir "William Hamilton, " can pos- 
sibly, in their study, educate to any active exercise of 
the power of observation, either as reflected upon our- 
selves, or as directed on the affairs of life and the phe- 
nomena of nature, will not, we presume, be maintained." . 
" That they do not cultivate the power of generaliza- 



214 THE TEACHING OF AEITHMETIG. 

tion," he continues, " is equally apparent." " But the 
study of mathematical demonstration is mainly recom- 
mended as a practice of reasoning in general; and it is 
precisely as such a practice that its inutility is perhaps 
the greatest." " Are mathematics then," he concludes, 
" of no value as an instrument of mental culture? To 
this we answer, that their study, if pursued in modera- 
tion, and efficiently counteracted, may be beneficial in 
the correction of a certain vice, and in the formation of 
its corresponding virtue. The vice is the habit of men- 
tal distraction ; the virtue, the habit of continuous atten- 
tion. This is the single benefit to which the study of 
mathematics can justly pretend in the cultivation of the 
mind." 

Such was the opinion of England's greatest phi- 
losopher, in this century at least. Reverting, now, to 
the course of study in the primary and grammar schools 
of Boston, I do not hesitate to say that some of the new 
subjects of study, if properly pursued, will not only 
educate to an active exercise of the power of observa- 
tion, will not only cultivate the power of generalization, 
will not only afford excellent practice of reasoning in 
general, but will also serve to create the habit of con- 
tinuous attention, as well as or even better than mathe- 
matics. Certainly the attention given by a class of 
interested children in the study of natural history, under 
a good teacher, is far closer and much more truly educa- 
tional than the attention given by pupils who are driven 
reluctantly through an arid waste of mathematics. 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 215 

I reach the conclusion, then, that not only the de- 
mands upon the time of our pupils, but the character of 
the subjects of study, new to this age, justifies and re- 
quires that arithmetic be restricted to that amount which 
is needed to give facility and accuracy, in ordinary 
numerical operations, with a view to the use to which 
this power is to be put, either in practical life, or in sub- 
sequent and higher studies. The amount of time now 
expended upon the study of arithmetic by the revised 
course is as follows: In the primary school, class 3, three 
hours thirty minutes per week; class 2, four hours; class 
1, four hours thirty minutes. Grammar school, class 6, 
four hours thirty minutes per week; class 5, four hours 
thirty minutes; class 4, five hours; class 3, five hours; 
class 2, four hours thirty minutes; class 1, four hours. 
During the second half of the last year, two hours and a 
half additional per week are devoted to the study of 
book-keeping; but to this I shall not advert. 

It appears, therefore, that nearly four hours and a 
half a week, or almost exactly one-fifth of the entire 
school-time, are devoted to the study of arithmetic, on 
the average, during the nine years of school life, accord- 
ing to the prescribed courses. But it also appears, from 
the results of an investigation made last winter at the in- 
stance of this Committee, that this allowance of time is, 
in many cases, exceeded, in some cases exceeded con- 
siderably, during school hours ; while it also appears that 
in thirty-six school districts home lessons in arithmetic 
are, to a greater or less extent, assigned. It is in the be- 



216 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

lief that our pupils could acquire all needed facility and 
accuracy in numerical operations in less than the time 
now devoted to arithmetic, that the Committee have in- 
cluded in their report two propositions — one, that home 
lessons in arithmetic shall be given out in exceptional 
cases only; another, to establish the average time to be 
devoted to the study of arithmetic at three hours and a 
half per week. It is my personal belief that this reduc- 
tion may ultimately proceed even further to advantage, 
and that the average child could acquire as much accu- 
racy and facility in this regard as would be desired, if 
properly instructed in simple numerical operations for 
three hours a week through a term of five years. 

At the present time the results in accuracy, if not in 
facility, of arithmetical work leave very much to be de- 
sired. Scarcely has the child been taught to count as 
high as ten, when he is put at technical applications of 
arithmetic to money-coins, to divisions of time, space, 
etc.; and these technical applications are increased in 
number and in difficulty through the successive years of 
the grammar school, until for a large amount of so-called 
arithmetic the pupil gets comparatively little practice in 
the art of numbers. I am far from saying that the 
pupils of our public schools should not acquire a certain 
amount of useful information. The most familiar tables 
of lengths, weights, measures, and coins may properly 
be given to them, and they may advantageously be prac- 
ticed in simple operations thereunder. But this whole 
matter of the technical applications of arithmetic should 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 2 1 7 

be treated in a highly conservative spirit. Of late years 
there has been some reform in this particular, and a few 
of the monstrosities of the old curriculum, — notably our 
ancient enemy, duodecimals, — have been thrown over- 
board. But there still remain many things, as taught in 
our schools, which occupy time that could better be de- 
voted to the study of other subjects, or, at least, to a 
greater degree of practice in simple operations. The 
report of the Committee on Examinations contains 
propositions for a very extensive retrenchment on this 
side. Compound interest, compound proportion, com- 
pound partnership, cube root and its applications, equa- 
tion of payments, exchange, " similar surfaces," and the 
mensuration of the trapezoid and trapezium, of the 
prism, pyramid, cone, and sphere, are proposed to be 
dropped from the course in the grammar school. If 
these subjects are to be studied, it should be in the high 
school. Another change in this direction is in the 
proposition to remove from the grammar school the 
study of the metric system. 

The Committee believe that, in the present state of 
our laws and commercial usages, the metric system is a 
proper subject for extended study in high schools only. 
The introduction of this subject so widely into the public 
schools of the United States has been due, not to an ap- 
preciation of the practical advantages of this instruction 
to the existing body of pupils, but to a propaganda for 
the promotion of legislation on the part of Congress and 
the legislatures of the several States, looking to the gen- 



218 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

eral adoption of the metric system. The Committee 
object to having the children of Boston used any longer 
as an agency for promoting that object, however in itself 
desirable. Not one child in a hundred, or in three hun- 
dred, who has left the schools of Massachusetts during 
the last ten years, to go to work, has ever once had occa- 
sion to use the metric system for any practical purpose. 
The few who may be called to make use of this system 
could readily acquire such portions of it as they might 
need, from their employers or their fellow-employees. 
In pursuit of the same object, it is further provided in 
the report of the Committee that all exercises in frac- 
tions, commission, discount, and proportion shall be con- 
fined to small sums and to simple subjects and processes, 
the main purpose throughout being to secure accuracy 
and a reasonable degree of facility in plain, ordinary 
ciphering. "Who of us has not seen in the hands of chil- 
dren of eleven, twelve, and thirteen years of age, 
examples in " compound and complex fractions " which 
were more difficult than any operation which any bank 
cashier in the city of Boston has occasion to perform, in 
the course of his business, from January to December? 
The most jagged fractions, such as would hardly ever be 
found in actual business operations, e. ^., H or l^j are 
piled one on top of another, to produce an unreal 
and impossible difficulty; and the child, having been 
furnished with such an arithmetical monstrosity, is 
set to multiplying or dividing it by another " compound 
and complex fraction " as unreal and ridiculous as itself. 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 219 

All this sort of thing in the teaching of young children 
is either useless or mischievous. It is bad psychology, 
bad physiology, and bad pedagogics. Every pupil, by 
the time he leaves the gTammar school, should be taught 
to use small sums infallibly, in multiplication and divi- 
sion, and to add columns of figures as long as an ordi- 
nary housekeeper's book or bank-deposit book, almost 
beyond the possibility of ever committing an error. 
This nearly every child of ordinary brightness can be 
brought to do, and that in a small part of the time now 
devoted to the so-called study of arithmetic. It is not 
necessary that the pupil should be brought to do this 
thing with rapidity. Only a reasonable facility should 
be aimed at. If a boy is to go into some line of work 
where figures are used only incidentally and occasion- 
ally, he will have facility enough for the purpose. It is 
only necessary that he should be infallibly accurate; and 
this any good teacher ought to be able to secure in five 
years, seven years, or nine years of drill. If, on the 
other hand, a boy is to go into a position where his main 
work is to be concerned with figures, he will readily 
enough acquire the necessary facility, if only accuracy 
has been secured during the years of especial mental 
growth and training. If, however, his training has 
been loose and unsystematic, no amount of practice will 
give him accuracy; the faster he works, the more mis- 
takes he will make. Nor is it easy, if, indeed, it be at 
all practicable, to remedy the defects of early education 
in the case of one who has passed the age of fifteen or 



220 TEE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

sixteen without that training and drill in the use of 
figures which would mate mistakes in simple operations 
almost impossible. 

Unfortunately, in this matter of inaccuracy in the use 
of figures, resulting from the manner in which arith- 
metic is now taught in our schools, the evidence is over- 
whelming in character and amount. Our technical 
schools receive pupils from the high schools who, while 
they understand difiicult theorems, and are masters of 
complicated algebraic formulae, make mistakes in the 
simplest arithmetical operations. If the high schools 
are blamed for this, the masters justify themselves by 
alleging that pupils come to them — as a high-school 
teacher said to me within two weeks — without being 
able to add or multiply, to subtract and divide, or even 
to count, with accuracy. 

The grammar-school masters, if appealed to, are 
obliged to admit the deficiencies of their graduates; but 
they ask, what better can be expected when only a small 
fraction, often a contemptibly small fraction, of the 
time nominally devoted to the study of arithmetic can 
be given to numerical operations, consistently with 
bringing their pupils up to the bar, duly loaded and 
primed for examination in countless technical applica- 
tions of arithmetical rules, and consistently with giving 
them that flexibility for the purposes of arithmetical 
gymnastics which the practical and illustrative prob- 
lems of the text-books require ? 

But it is not alone the teachers of the high schools 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 221 

who have occasion to complain of the way in which the 
study of arithmetic is conducted under the prevaihng 
system. The employers of those boys and girls who 
leave the grammar school to go to work, have occasion 
to complain, and do complain bitterly, of the deficiencies 
of our instruction on this side. After very extensive in- 
quiries, conducted through the past year, I do not find 
it possible to entertain a doubt that the old-fashioned 
facility and accuracy in ciphering have been largely sac- 
rificed to the numerous technical applications and difii- 
cult logical puzzles which have been introduced into the 
instruction in arithmetic, and that our children leave the 
schools very ill-prepared, in this respect, for the practical 
work of life. ISTow, it is difficult to imagine a greater 
wrong, short of a permanent injury to health, that can 
be done to a child, than to send him into the world to 
earn his living without the ability to conduct numerical 
operations accurately and with reasonable facility. 
Employers have, literally, no use for boys who make 
mistakes in numbers. Such a failing offsets the best 
training otherwise of mind and hand. 

In a store or shop or factory, or on a railroad, a lad 
who cannot set down figures and add them right every 
time is little better than a cripple. The master of one 
of our high schools told me recently of having been in- 
formed by the president of a Boston bank that, at an 
examination held during the year with reference to an 
appointment in his institution, out of several graduates 
of various high schools of this vicinity not one was found 



222 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

able to add the columns of figures given to him, with- 
out errors. It is little wonder that this should be the 
result, when, of the time devoted to arithmetic, four- 
fifths or nine-tenths is occupied by technical applica- 
tions of numerical principles, or is worse than wasted by 
logical puzzles unsuited to the child's age and mental 
strength. 

And this last remark brings me to the hardest accusa- 
tion which is to be brought against the current teaching 
of arithmetic. Well aware that at this point we have to 
encounter an inveterate superstition of the ]^ew Eng- 
land mind, I have armed myself as much as possible with 
authority derived from men of the ripest wisdom and 
the largest learning in mental science. The charge I 
make against the existing course of study is that it is 
largely made up of exercises which are not exercises in 
arithmetic at all, or principally, but are exercises in 
logic and, secondly, that, as exercises in logic, these are 
either useless or mischievous. The class of exercises 
that is here in mind will be easily apprehended. It is 
of those where an example, or so-called practical prob- 
lem, is given in figures and words, which are to be 
reduced to the form of figures and algebraic signs, and 
thereupon the performance of the indicated numerical 
operations will yield the required result. It would, 
perhaps, be going too far to say that such examples 
should in no case be given ; but it may be unhesitatingly 
asserted that wherever the " statement " wliich is pre- 
liminary to the performance of the purely arithmetical 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 223 

operations involves a great deal of trouble, time, and 
thought, while the mere ciphering which follows is done 
in a minute, such exercises, as a matter of course, are not 
exercises in arithmetic, but in logic. 

Secondly, if such exercises, of any considerable de- 
gree of difficulty, are to be set at all for the pupils in 
our public schools, they should be prescribed as exer- 
cises in logic, or the art of reasoning; they should be 
taken from books prepared by eminent teachers of the 
science of mind who are qualified to decide as to the de- 
gree of difficulty in logical exercises which is suitable 
to the child of this or that age; and the exercises so pre- 
scribed should be conducted by persons themselves 
trained and qualified to teach the art of reasoning. To 
smuggle exercises of this character into instruction given 
in the name of arithmetic, is an abuse. By it has been 
created a bastard arithmetic which fails to perform the 
true function of that study in our public schools — 
namely, to produce accuracy and a reasonable degree of 
facility in numerical operations — while wasting the time 
of the pupils,^ perplexing their minds, worrying their 

' In scarcely any branch of study is it possible to absolutely waste 
so much time as in arithmetic. In history or geograph}^ for exam- 
ple, the more time the pupil spends over his books the more, speak- 
ing generally, will he learn. What he learns may be of little value; 
but he will certainly, in a greater number of hours, acquire a 
greater number of names, facts, and dates. In arithmetic, however, 
almost any amount of time and nervous force may be made a dead 
loss, if the logical puzzles presented to the pupils, under the name of 
practical problems, are above the pupil's comprehension. After the 
child has read over the problem again and again, without under- 
standing it, without seeing the jjriuciple and processes involved, and 



224 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

tempers, rasping their nerves, and, in case of total or 
partial failure, unnecessarily and unrighteously shock- 
ing and impairing their self-respect and scholarly- 
ambition . 

Does anyone consider this an extravagant denuncia- 
tion of exercises of the character indicated? I ask, is 
there any father who has had children in the public 
schools of Boston, where arithmetic is used as a home 
lesson, who has not seen those children puzzling and 
worrying ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes over a " prac- 
tical problem," the purely numerical work of which 
would not occupy as many seconds; and, after an even- 
ing spent in this way, going to bed hot, tired, and per- 
haps tearful, and altogether unfitted for that sound and 
healthful sleep which should close every child's day? I 
have myself had four children in the grammar schools 
of this city or of New Haven, where home lessons in 
arithmetic were allowed. Each one of these in turn I 
have seen tormented in this way; and have myself, not 
infrequently, when stooping to aid them, that they 
might go to bed in something like Christian season, been 
not a little perplexed and troubled to make the state- 
ments required. Doubtless this has been the experience 
of most parents; and doubtless, too, this practice would 

has made one or two hopeless efforts towards its solution, it docs liim 
no good whatever to keep on worrying over it. The exercise ceases 
to have any educational value, and becomes merely a means of 
nervous exhaustion. — Erom Pvesident Walker's Reply to Stipervuor 
Peterson in the Boston School Committee. Published in " Primary 
Education," September, 1887. 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 225 

long since have been reformed, but for tlie inveterate 
superstition of the New England mind tliat it is well the 
child should be worried and perplexed in education, and 
that out of this agitation of the nerves and this strain 
upon the mental powers proceed health and vigor/ 
Such a view is everywhere yielding to a better study of 
the laws of mind. Generally, if not universally speak- 
ing, whatever in education is hard is wrong. The true 
mental gymnastic for growing children is through exer- 
cises easy and pleasant which lead insensibly up to ever 

' A generation ago it was the accepted theory of educators gener- 
ally, that instruction, to be most effective, should cross the grain of 
the youthful mind; that if disinclination were shown towards any 
particular study, the teacher should catch at this as his welcome clew; 
and that the scholar should thereafter be practiced and drilled, for 
his mind's good, against his indifference, his dislike, and even his re- 
pugnance, until he sliould learn to do well and freely that for which 
he had originally the strongest inaptitude. In a word, indisposi- 
tion towards any kind of mental exercise was to be dealt with like a 
sinful inclination; war was to be made upon it until it should be 
conquered. 

Not only a better observation of life, but the study of physiologi- 
cal psychology, has led the educators of to-day to a widely different 
view of the ofBce of instruction. It is now generally admitted that 
it is the first duty of the teacher to ascertain the true bent of the 
youthful mind, and that, so far as practicable, instruction should be 
made to conform thereto; that the successful teacher is not the one 
who compels the scholar to do, at the last, reasonably well that 
which h(! was at the first least disposed to do, but the one who brings 
the scholar to do, in the fullest degree and in the most perfect man- 
ner, that for which he has the greatest aptitude, leading him, with 
ever increasing freedom and pleasure of work, in the ways which 
nature has pointed out; that in any other system of training there is 
enormous and irreparable loss of nervous force and moral enthusi- 
asm, with a result certain to be lower and less desirable than under 
the system which seeks to develop to tlieir highest efiiciency the na- 
tive powers of the mind. — Fi-om Annnal lieport as President of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1883. 



226 



TEE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 



higher planes of attainment, as the faculties are ex- 
panded and strengthened according to their own law of 
growth, aided and fostered by gentle and agreeable 
practice. 

It is in my power to present to the committee the re- 
sults of an experiment on a sufficiently large scale to 
establish the truth of these representations regarding the 
difficulty of many of the sums and problems set for the 
pupils of our public schools. Fourteen examples, taken 
from the arithmetic in use in our schools, were given 
out to a large number of pupils of the three upper classes 
in four of our grammar schools. These examples were 
not the most difficult which could have been taken for 
the purpose. On the contrary, a number of the examples 
first selected were thrown out upon the representation of 
the masters that they would be found so difficult as to 
produce a general failure. The following represents 
the percentage of successful answers in each case: 



Example, 
1 
2 

3 

4 
5 
6 

7 



Per Cent. 


Example. 


69 


8 


16 


9 


. 47 


10 


67 


11 


46 


12 


56 


13 


86 


14 



Per Cent. 
53 
65 
38 
49 
51 
70 
39 



But it is not merely to the degree of difficulty attach- 
ing to exercises of this character that exception should be 
taken. I desire to challenge peremptorily the whole 
policy of giving out exercises of any appreciable degree 
of logical difficulty to children of this age. Thoroughly 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 227 

convinced that such a practice involves, to repeat the 
phrase already used, bad psychology, bad physiology, 
and bad pedagogics, I was yet desirous of bringing to 
my support the authority of masters in mental science, 
and, with this view, addressed communications to Pro- 
fessor William James, professor of psychology in Har- 
vard University; Professor George H. Howison, pro- 
fessor of philosophy in the University of California ; Dr. 
G. Stanley Hall, professor of pedagogics in the Johns 
Hopkins University,^ and Dr. N^oah Porter, late presi- 
dent of Yale College, and still professor of mental and 
moral science in that institution. The purport of these 
communications was to inquire, first, whether the faculty 
of logical analysis is not one which, in the case of the 
vast majority of children, normally develops at a later 
period than that within our present consideration; 
secondly, whether if this be so, there is any pedagogical 
advantage in attempting to " pry up " this faculty and 
bring it prematurely into consciousness and exercise, in- 
stead of devoting the time and strength of young pupils 
to the formation of a habit of observation, to the culti- 
vation of the powers of perception, to practice in the 
interpretation of personally observed phenomena, to the 
acquisition of elementary information, and to the devel- 
opment, in a reasonable degree, of strength and clearness 
in the memory. The class of exercises to which excep- 
tion has been taken were illustrated either by sufficient 
description or by actual examples. To these communi- 
' Now President of Clark University. — Ed. 



228 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

cations the most courteous replies have been received. 
The essential parts are here submitted, without apology 
for their length, on account of the great interest of the 
subject treated, and the high and commanding reputa- 
tion of the authors. 

Professor James writes: " The elaborate combinations 
of arithmetical data of which you write are certainly 
given to children before their brains are very hot for 
them ; while I imagine, on the contrary, the mere opera- 
tions of arithmetic are a comparatively congenial exer- 
cise. It is, as you say, in the association of concretes 
that the child's mind takes most delight. Working out 
results by rule of thumb, learning to name things when 
they see them, drawing maps, learning languages, seem 
to me the most appropriate activities for children under 
thirteen to be engaged in. Anecdotal history (without 
political ideas) might be added. I feel pretty confident 
that no man will be the worse analyst or reasoner or 
mathematician at twenty for lying fallow in these re- 
spects during his entire childhood." 

Professor Stanley Hall writes: " If I correctly under- 
stand your position, I most emphatically agree with it. 
The purer the mathematics for boys of from ten to 
fourteen years of age, the better, it seems to me. Many 
of our arithmetics presuppose algebra and geometry; 
i. e., in the latter part give examples that can be done 
easily by those methods, but which require students to 
go through long and tedious processes which algebra and 
geometry were meant to short-circuit. Problems in 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 229 

brokerage, surveying of land, architecture, custom-house 
practices, etc., are taught, just as in the old Hindoo 
mathematics a taste for poetry, and in mediaeval arith- 
metics moral and religious maxims, and even systems, as 
well as historical information, v^ere inculcated in the 
form of ' sums.' Has modern business really any more 
place at that stage? . . . American teachers seem to 
me to have spun the simple and immediate relations and 
properties of numbers over with pedantic difficulties. 
The four rules, fractions, factoring, decimals, propor- 
tion, per cent., and roots, is not this all that is essential? 
The best European text-books I know do only this, and 
are in the smaller compass, for they look only at facility 
in pure number-relations, which is hindered by the 
irrelevant material publishers and bad teachers use as 
padding." 

Professor Howison writes: " I understand your ques- 
tion to bear simply on the point whether I consider the 
class of arithmetical exercises, to which you refer, and 
in which the work turns almost entirely on the logical 
relations of the numbers given in each example, to be a 
wholesome regimen for pupils in the common schools, 
of ages from eleven to thirteen years. To this I reply, 
first, that on general principles such exercises in reason- 
ing upon the combinative relations of numbers, or num- 
bered objects, ought to play a very subordinate part in 
the elementary period of instruction of arithmetic. But 
nevertheless, secondly, as the very life of arithmetical 
power turns on ability to make the logical synthesis in- 



230 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

volved in the latter kind of work (you see, I do not 
reckon them mere analyses, as is usually done), I think 
some exercises of this sort should go along with the other 
simple and more natural kind, and that they should go 
from the earliest practicable date, almost from the be- 
ginning. But the combinative reasoning should be 
adjusted in the most careful and considerate manner, 
with a reference, that is, to the degree of difficulty with 
which the mind of a child is able at each date to cope, 
without confusion, and without sense of shame. So, 
thirdly, I should say that the question you raise con- 
cerns, mainly, a matter of more or less — a matter of de- 
gree. It is not that the class of exercises to which you 
refer are in kind and of necessity wrong, but that the 
complexity and difficulty of those actually given are so 
often out of all proportion to the healthy capacities of 
children at the age involved. . . My own experience 
and opinion of many details in the arithmetics made for 
boys and girls of the age to which you refer are quite 
like yours. And my experience and my theories, 
founded on my professional studies and practice, have 
alike made it, with me, a matter of settled conviction 
that not only in mathematical, but in all elementary 
teaching, though in elementary mathematical teaching 
pre-eminently, the first thing is to get the pupil perfectly 
familiar with, and as nearly as possible infallibly accu- 
rate, in fundamental facts and operations. . . I be- 
lieve our current practice in this reference has for some 
years — say the last thirty — been going seriously wrong. 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 231 

The reaction from the exaggerated rote-work of the pre- 
ceding period has driven us into the error of the opposite 
extreme. 

" The attenuated thread into which grammar-school 
instruction is now ' long drawn out ' should appear a 
patent absurdity to every thinking mind. Particularly 
is this absurdity manifest in the fact that we spend eight 
or nine years in nominally teaching arithmetic, when we 
ought to be able, surely, to accomplish all that is essential 
in three, or, at the very utmost, in four." 

President Porter writes: " I am entirely with you in 
the opinion that the questions which you send me are 
unfit for pupils of fourteen or fifteen years, unless they 
have been subjected to a special training; and that to 
subject persons of that age to such a training would ordi- 
narily do them more harm than good. . . Nothing is 
so admirable, in its time and place, as the pure mathe- 
matics in every form. When these are properly taught, 
i. e., when they have trained the mind to sharp analysis 
and patient synthesis, by the use of numbers and geo- 
metric forms, they prepare the way for the higher forms 
of logical analysis and synthesis, and, last of all, for in- 
vention — the invention which is presupposed in the 
problems to which you reasonably object." 

It is for the reasons which have been given, re- 
enforced by the authority of the eminent teachers who 
have been cited, that the Committee have included in 
their recommendations a rule which would require that 
all practical and illustrative problems should be of a 



232 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

nature to interest and to aid the pupils in their strictly 
aritlimetical work, not to throw obstacles in their way or 
to increase the difficulty of that work ; it being expressly 
provided that all problems where an attentive and dili- 
gent pupil of ordinary capacity would find any consider^ 
able degree of difficulty in making the " statement " 
preliminary to the performance of the numerical opera- 
tions required, shall be deemed objectionable. 



ARITHMETIC IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS 

1887 



Address befoke the Grammar-School Section of 
THE Massachusetts Teachers' Association, Novem- 
ber 25, 1887. From The Academy, January, 1888. 



AEITHMETIC IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 

Near the close of the last school year, the School 
Board of Boston passed the following orders concerning 
the study of arithmetic: 

1. Home lessons in arithmetic should be given out 
only in exceptional cases. 

2. The mensuration of the trapezoid and of the tra- 
pezium, of the prism, pyramid, cone, and sphere; com- 
pound interest, cube root and its applications; equation 
of payments, exchange, similar surfaces, metric sys- 
tem, compound proportion, and compound partnership, 
should not be included in the required course. 

3. All exercises in fractions, commission, discount, 
and proportion should be confined to small numbers, and 
to simple subjects and processes, the main purpose 
throughout being to secure thoroughness, accuracy, 
and a reasonable degree of facility in plain, ordinary 
ciphering. 

4. In " practical problems," and in examples illus- 
trative of arithmetical principles, all exercises are to be 
avoided in which a fairly intelligent and attentive child 
of the age concerned would find any considerable diffi- 
culty in making the statement which is preliminary to 
the performance of the proper arithmetical operations. 

When arithmetical work is put into the form of prac- 
tical or illustrative problems, it must be for the purpose 

235 



236 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

of interesting and aiding the child in the performance 
of the arithmetical operations, and with a view to their 
common utility. 

5. In oral arithmetic no racing should be permitted; 
but the dictation should be of moderate rapidity. 

6. The average time devoted to arithmetic through- 
out the primary- and grammar-school course should be 
three and a half hours a week ; and in the third primary 
grade, not more than two hours, and in the first and 
second primary grades, not more than three and a half 
hours each per week. 

It is the purpose of the present paper to state the con- 
siderations, as I conceive them, which moved and guided 
the School Board in taking the action recited. 

The inhibition of home lessons in arithmetic stands 
upon somewhat different ground from the other orders 
of the committee. It might fairly be asked why arith- 
metic should not be put upon the same level with geog- 
raphy or grammar or history or physiology, as a possible 
and proper matter for home lessons, if, indeed, home 
lessons are to be assigned at all. In answer to this ques- 
tion, I may say that the committee which recommended 
the rule recited were actuated by three considerations. 

First — The committee, having become satisfied that 
there is a tendency unduly to magnify the importance 
of arithmetic on the part of many grammar-school 
teachers, and to allow that subject to encroach alike upon 
the time which should be devoted to other subjects of 
study and upon the time which should be given to recre- 



ARITHMETIC IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 237 

ation, exercise, and rest, deemed home lessons by far the 
most likely avenues for such encroachment, and there- 
fore prohibited their use in connection with this branch 
of study, save only in cases clearly exceptional, as, for 
instance, when a pupil has for some time been ab- 
sent from school and has, consequently, back work to 
make up. 

At this point it may be not inappropriate to remark 
that careful inquiry of the superintendent and the super- 
visors of schools failed to elicit the faintest evidence that 
better results in arithmetic were, as a rule, attained in 
schools where home lessons in this branch were habitu- 
ally given out to the pupils of one or another or of all 
the three upper classes, than in schools where no such 
lessons were assigned. The reasons for such an ap- 
parent waste of the time and force expended upon home 
lessons in arithmetic will, I think, abundantly appear in 
the further course of this discussion. 

Secondly — Arithmetic, as the subject matter of home 
lessons, affords peculiar opportunities for doing injustice 
as between pupil and pupil. In some degree such in- 
justice will be done whenever the work of the pupil is 
transferred from the schoolroom, where all have equal 
advantages as to light and air, quiet, and the individual 
attention of the teacher, to their homes, where the widest 
possible range exists as to the conditions under which the 
work shall be prosecuted. One pupil takes his " sums " 
to a quiet study-room, well lighted and warmed; another 
pupil takes his task back to a home where it is to be per- 



238 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

formed amid noise and squalor, by an inadequate and 
doubtful light, perhaps with half-a-dozen children in the 
same room, possibly with drinking and smoking going 
on. Such a range of conditions would apply equally to 
all subjects taken for home lessons, but it would produce 
a far greater effect in the case of arithmetical tasks, re- 
quiring a peculiar degree of abstraction and attention, 
than in that of almost any other subject. 

Of even more importance, in this connection, is the 
consideration that the parents of some pupils are capable 
of helping them to the solution of their problems and are 
very likely to do so if the work is seen to be too difficult, 
while other parents are entirely incapable of giving any 
assistance to their children no matter how heavily they 
may be taxed by the tasks assigned. It goes without 
saying that such an inequality of conditions would pro- 
duce far less injustice, as between pupil and pupil, if 
history, geography, grammar, or physiology were the 
subject matter of the home lessons. 

Thirdly — The last and most conclusive of the con- 
siderations against home lessons in arithmetic is that the 
absence of the master prevents any authoritative inter- 
position to put a stop to the business when, even accord- 
ing to the standards of the most ardent advocates of 
pedagogic torture, it has already proceeded far enough. 
In the old flogging days of the army and navy, it was 
always required that the surgeon should stand by, to feel 
the pulse of the poor -wretch under the lash, to watch the 
signs of approaching nervous collapse, and, in his dis- 



ARITHMETIC IN TEE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 239 

cretion, to forbid the punishment to proceed further. 
But in the case of our young children to whom home 
lessons in arithmetic are assigned, no such humane pro- 
vision exists. Were the work being done in the open 
schooh'oom, the severest master, when he saw that the 
child did not understand the problem, could not do the 
work, and was only becoming more excited and fatigued 
by repeated attempts, would interpose either to give 
assistance or to put a stop to the exercise. In the case 
of home lessons, however, an ambitious and sensitive 
child finds no such relief. The work may go on long 
after the child should have been in bed, until a state is 
reached where further persistence is not only in the 
highest degree injurious but has no longer any possible 
relation to success. The boy or girl, hot, tired, over- 
wrought, quivering with distress, could no more do " the 
sum " in such a condition, than he or she could " put 
up " a hundred-pound dumb-bell. Yet the remon- 
strances of parents produce only fresh tears, and when 
at last authority is exerted and the child is driven to 
bed, utterly unfitted for that sound and refreshing sleep 
which should close every child's day, the task is still un- 
performed. Over and over and over again have I had 
to send my own children, in spite of their tears and re- 
monstrances, to bed, long after the assigned tasks had 
ceased to have any educational value and had become the 
means of nervous exhaustion and agitation, highly 
prejudicial to body and to mind ; and I have no reason to 
doubt that such has been the experience of a large pro- 



240 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

portion of the parents whose children are habitually 
assigned home lessons in arithmetic. 

Such were the considerations which induced the com- 
mittee to pass the first order which has been read in your 
hearing. 

Regarding the remaining five orders, considered as a 
body, it may be said that the committee in framing them 
were actuated by the belief, formed partly through their 
individual experience and observation of public school 
instruction, and partly as a result of an investigation 
conducted by the committee in pursuance of an order of 
the School Board under date of April 27, 1886, that 
both loss of time and misdirection of effort, with even 
some positively injurious consequences, were involved 
in the teaching of arithmetic as carried on in some of 
the Boston schools. And here let me say, to prevent 
misapprehension, that the committee at no time in- 
tended to reflect on the schools of our own city as com- 
pared with those of neighboring cities and towns. Per- 
sonally, I believe that the teaching of arithmetic has 
been more humane and rational, of late years, in the 
schools of Boston than in those of most New England 
towns and cities. 

What, then, are the faults complained of? 

First — That the amount of time devoted to this study 
is in excess of what can fairly be allotted to it, in the 
face of the demands of other and equally important 
branches of study. 

Secondly — That the study of arithmetic is very 



ARITHMETIC IN TUE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 241 

largely pursued by methods, supposed to conduce to 
general mental training, which, in a great degree, sacri- 
fice that facility and accuracy in numerical computa- 
tions so essential in the after-life of the pupil, whether 
as a student in the higher schools or as a bread-winner. 

Thirdly — That, as arithmetic is taught in many — per- 
haps in most — schools, the possible advantages of this 
branch of study, even as a means of general mental 
training and of the development of the reasoning 
powers, are, whether by fault of the text-book or of the 
individual teacher or of the standards adopted for exami- 
nation, largely sacrificed through making the exercises 
of undue difficulty and complexity, the exercises pre- 
scribed often reaching a degree of difficulty and com- 
plexity which not only destroys their disciplinary value 
but becomes a means of positive injury. 

The three propositions just recited, I will, with your 
indulgence, take up in consecutive order. 

First — The estimation in which arithmetic is held, 
alike by the general public, by school boards and com- 
mittees whose duty it is to lay out and arrange the course 
of study, and by the teachers who, enjoying more or less 
freedom of action, ai*e to carry the prescribed schemes 
of instruction into effect, is very largely a traditional 
one. The recognition of changed circumstances and 
conditions, the persistent intrusion of new demands and 
requirements arising out of those changes in condition 
and circumstance, have, indeed, caused both the official 
and the popular estimation of arithmetic to be more or 



242 THE TEACHING OF ABITEMETIG. 

less fully revised and modified. Yet, so strong is the 
force of tradition, especially in the school system, where 
the pupils of one generation become the teachers of the 
next, that we cannot too carefully inquire whether the 
reasons which at one time underlay this or that part of 
our scheme of instruction have not disappeared. 

The objects sought in teaching arithmetic to the chil- 
dren of our public schools are two. First, foremost, 
and absolutely indispensable, is the acquisition of 
the ability to perform simple numerical operations 
with reasonable rapidity and with almost infallible 
accuracy. Greatly as children differ on the side of 
their minds concerned in these operations, there should 
be yet no difficulty in securing the above result 
in the case of all but a very few persons who may 
perhaps, for school purposes, be regarded as hopelessly 
indisposed toward numbers. Probably every one of 
these last cases would in time yield to judicious indi- 
vidual treatment; but, as children have to be dealt with 
in large classes, we must accept a small proportion of 
failures, in this respect, as inevitable. 

What is the standard which should be set up for 
attainment in arithmetic, having reference only to the 
practical value of that attainment in after-life? I an- 
swer, 1st, the ability to count infallibly objects occur- 
ring irregularly, up to two or three hundred, say, for 
example, packages of tickets or checks, dots upon a 
piece of paper, persons in a small audience room, etc.; 
2d, the ability to add, without the possibility of a mis- 



AEITEMETIG IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 243 

take, columns of figures such as would occur in an ordi- 
nary savings-bank deposit-book or housekeeper's pass- 
book; 3d, the ability to add two numbers, each below 
one hundred, or to subtract the less from the greater, 
rapidly and without recourse to pen or pencil; 4th, the 
ability to multiply, on the slate or blackboard, one num- 
ber of moderate length by a small multiplier, or to 
divide it by a small divisor; 5th, the ability to compute 
simple interest, on moderate sums, at even rates per 
cent., for round periods; 6th, the ability to work simple 
examples in " Reduction," involving the use of the 
American tables of weights, measures, and moneys. 

If every boy and girl, on leaving the grammar school, 
at fourteen or fifteen, had reached this stage of attain- 
ment, the public schools would have fairly done their 
duty by them, so far as the practical uses of arithmetic 
are concerned. This is all I would ask for my own son 
or daughter. This is as much as nineteen boys out of 
twenty, ninety-nine girls out of a hundred, who do not 
go beyond the grammar schools have occasion to put 
frequently to use in the work of their lives. If the 
twentieth boy is to be a clerk or accountant or to take up 
business for himself, he will, very readily, from this 
basis, acquire the needed facility in casting up the 
columns of a ledger, or in working heavier sums in mul- 
tiplication or division. 

This is the first object to be sought through the study 
of arithmetic; and its importance has neither increased 
nor diminished since the days of our fathers. 



244 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

The second object wbicLi is properly sought by means 
of the studies and exercises in question is general mental 
training. 

The importance of this function of arithmetic has 
greatly declined during the present generation by rea- 
son of the introduction of new studies and exercises, 
some of which are equally well adapted, if, indeed, not 
better adapted, to perform the required work. Thirty 
and forty years ago, the studies in our public schools 
were few and simple. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, 
a little grammar, some crude declamation, with political 
geography, made up, substantially, the course of study. 
Of the physical geography of to-day, extending even to 
what were once the mysteries of meteorology, taking 
into account the influence of currents of air and water 
upon climate, and of climate upon the productions of 
the soil and upon the occupations of man, there was then 
not a trace. History and civil government were un- 
known studies in the grammar schools of those days. 
Physiology was just about to enter the schools, in spite 
of the protest of an eminent citizen of Massachusetts 
upon the ground that it was one of a group of sciences 
none of which should be brought into the schools unless 
all were to be. Music and drawing were to wait still 
longer for recognition by school authorities. The 
elementary mechanics and physics, so successfully 
taught in many schools, were then not dreamed of as 
possible subjects of study. A district schoolmaster of 
the past generation would as soon have thought of teach- 



ARITHMETIC IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 245 

ing the language of Archimedes as of explaining the 
principle of the lever and fulcrum. 

The introduction of many new subjects of study has 
greatly reduced the importance of arithmetic as a means 
of general training. In the generation just passed, it 
was necessarily looked to for very much of the develop- 
ment and discipline of the pupil. To-day a haK score of 
separate sciences or important subjects of study offer 
themselves to do the same work, in one or more of which 
are unmistakably found all the educational virtues which 
belong to arithmetic, together with others which arith- 
metic does not possess. The strongest claim made in be- 
half of mathematical study has been its cultivation of 
the power of continuous attention; yet the degree of 
attention which can be commanded, on the part of chil- 
dren dragged reluctantly through compound fractions 
or cube root, is far inferior to that given by a group of 
eager boys and girls following an enlightened teacher in 
some branch of natural history. Generally speaking, 
it may be said of the new subjects, tliat, while they train 
the powers of reasoning not less efficiently than does 
arithmetic, they also bring into play the powers of per- 
ception and observation which in all branches of mathe- 
matics are left absolutely unused. 

I would not wish to be understood to assert that arith- 
metic has ceased to have any educational value at all, 
beyond its practical utility, in the public school of to-day. 
I entertain no doubt that, in the primary school and. 
even the lower classes of the cramm'ar school, number- 



246 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

lessons, in application to concrete objects, may be help- 
ful in awakening interest, arousing thought, and bring- 
ing the mind into healthful exercise; but I do seriously 
question whether for every hour spent by a boy of thir- 
teen or fourteen years of age in the study of arithmetic, 
beyond what is necessary to secure the degree of accu- 
racy and facility indicated at an earlier stage of the 
discussion, an hour spent in some other kind of study 
might not be substituted to his very great advantage. 
However this may be, it seems to me clear that arith- 
metic, by virtue of having been earlier on the ground 
and of enjoying the prestige and authority derived from 
the past, continues to-day to occupy space which is 
urgently needed for the proper extension of some of the 
new subjects that, in spite of the recognition of their 
practical utility and educational value, have scarcely 
been able to secure a foothold in fact, although forming 
a feature of the grammar-school curriculum on paper. 

The second of the main propositions laid down was 
that the study of arithmetic is very largely pursued by 
methods supposed to conduce to general mental training 
which, in a great degree, sacrifice that facility and accu- 
racy in numerical computations, so essential in the after- 
life of the pupil, whether as a student in the higher 
schools or as a bread-winner. 

That the results of the study of arithmetic in the 
grammar schools are unsatisfactory, so far as the ability 
of the pupils to perform numerical work correctly and 
with reasonable dispatch is concerned, whether in subse- 



ARITHMETIC IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 247 

quent studies or in actual business operations, seems to me 
establisheii by abundant testimony, both of merchants, 
manufacturers, and bankers, receiving graduates from 
our grammar schools, and of teachers in higher institu- 
tions of learning. The average pupil falls short of the 
very moderate degree of attainment which I indicated as 
fairly to be expected from all but a very few highly ex- 
ceptional scholars, and that too with very much less than 
the amount of time actually devoted to arithmetic. The 
head masters of both of the great high schools of Boston 
have assured me that they find grave deficiencies on the 
part of large numbers of pupils coming from the gram- 
mar schools, in this matter of accuracy in simple nu- 
merical operations ; and I have received similar informa- 
tion from the head masters of high schools in other cities. 
In the institution with which I am personally connected, 
instructors in algebra, for example, find that many 
pupils who are familiar with difiicult theorems and are 
masters of complicated formulae, often vitiate their work 
by simple numerical mistakes, such as would have been 
impossible had they been properly trained in the earlier 
stages of their mathematical education. Professor 
SafFord, the eminent mathematician and astronomer of 
"Williams College, in a recent treatise states that he finds 
in his own pupils a great want of skill in ordinary calcu- 
lations and that inaccuracy in simple arithmetical work 
is very common. In a letter which I have to-day re- 
ceived, Professor John E. Clark, the head of the mathe- 
matical department of the Sheffield Scientific School of 



248 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

Yale College, states very strongly the deficiencies of 
students entering that school, in the matter of simple 
numerical accuracy and facility. 

Embarrassing as are such deficiencies in the case of 
students pursuing long courses of study, the results in 
the case of those students who leave the grammar school 
to begin to earn their own living are in a high degree 
disastrous. To repeat here language which I have used 
elsewhere: employers have literally no use for boys who 
make mistakes in numbers. Such a failing offsets the 
best training, otherwise, of mind and hand. In a store 
or shop or factory, or on a railroad, a lad who cannot set 
down figures, and add them right, every time, must 
take and keep an inferior position. It is difficult to 
imagine a greater wrong, short of a permanent injury to 
health, that can be done to a child than to send him out 
into the world to earn his living without the ability to 
conduct numerical operations accurately. 

The defect which has been thus severely commented 
on is not due to a lack of time devoted to exercises under 
the name of arithmetic, but to the fact that so little 
proper numerical work is involved in these exercises. 
Scarcely has the pupil learned the four simple rules be- 
fore he is given numerous technical applications requir- 
ing the use of extended tables of weights, measures and 
moneys, and so-called practical or illustrative problems 
which necessitate deep and long puzzling over the rela- 
tions and terms involved. Even in the early stages of 
this process, seldom is so much as one-half of the time 



ARITHMETIC IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 249 

given to proper numerical work. Often that proportion 
sinks to a third, or a quarter, or even to a smaller share. 
Sometimes the amount of such work becomes inconsider- 
able. Who of us has not seen a bright lad spend ten or 
fifteen minutes over a practical problem, when the mere 
addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division in- 
volved would not have occupied as many seconds? 

It was partly to increase the amount of actual nu- 
merical work to be done in an hour devoted to so-called 
arithmetic; in part, also, to reduce the load which our 
children are required to carry all the time on their 
minds, ready to be at any instant unpacked and put to 
use, that the School Board of Boston have thrown over- 
board the large and miscellaneous " lot " of subjects 
mentioned in their second order. It was with reference 
in part to the consideration just indicated, and, in part, 
to that consideration which remains now to be 
stated, that they passed the orders numbered three and 
four. 

The third and last of the main considerations which 
actuated the School Board, dealing with this subject, has 
been stated as follows : That, as arithmetic is now taught 
in many, perhaps in most, schools, the possible advan- 
tages of this branch of study as a means of general 
mental training, are, whether by fault of the text-book 
or of the individual teacher or of the standards adopted 
for examination, largely sacrificed, through making the 
exercises of undue difficulty and complexity, the exer- 
cises prescribed often reaching a degree of difficulty and 



250 TEE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

complexity which not only completely destroys their dis- 
ciplinary value, but becomes a means of positive injury. 

It was in the belief just stated that the Board pre- 
scribed that all exercises in fractions, discount, commis- 
sion, and proportion should be confined to small numbers 
and to simple subjects and processes; and, again, that in 
so-called practical and illustrative problems, all exer- 
cises in which a fairly intelligent and attentive child of 
the age concerned would find any considerable difficulty 
in making the " statement " which is preliminary to the 
performance of the proper arithmetical operation, shall 
be deemed objectionable. 

This action of the school committee was at the time 
opposed, and is still by some criticised, on two different 
grounds. One, that the exercises given to the children 
in the Boston schools, whether as examples under the 
rules mentioned or as practical and illustrative problems, 
have, in fact, uniformly been simple and easy ; the other, 
that, in sound educational theory, the exercises given to 
young pupils ought to be difficult, complicated, perplex- 
ing, and distressing, in order that the child's mind and 
spirit may undergo a due preparation for the difficult 
duties and hard problems of life, one enthusiastic writer 
of this school going so far as to declare that it is essential 
to good education that the sums set for the pupil should 
be not only often difficult but sometimes actually impos- 
sible of solution by him, in his then stage of mental de- 
velopment. 

To the assertion, so constantly made, as to the simple 



ARITHMETIC IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 251 

and easy character of the exercises prescribed for our 
children, it may be replied that, if the facts are as stated, 
the rules imposed can do no harm ; but that the personal 
testimony of members of the Board abundantly 
establishes the fact that absurdly complicated exercises 
in fractions, cube root, etc., and practical problems 
amounting to the severest logical puzzles, were given 
out, in some of the schools of Boston, down to the very 
date of the order recited. 

As to the educational theory which was brought to 
bear, both in debate and in outside criticism, against the 
proposed rules, I may say it is pleasure to encounter 
error with so little of disguise. If its advocates are in 
the right, the action which the school cormnittee have 
taken is, of course, all wrong; but I, for one, do not hesi- 
tate to assert that this theory, in its milder form, is in- 
consistent with the best and ripest results of modem 
physiology and psychology; while I denounce that 
theory in its extreme shape as a relic of barbarism, 
closely akin to some of the most savage superstitions of 
primitive mankind. The notion that exercises, either 
mental or physical, prescribed for young children, 
should be often up to the full limit of their powers and 
should at times exceed those powers is distinctly false. 
The true gymnastic for the growing child is through 
exercises easy and pleasant, which lead insensibly up to 
ever higher planes of attainment, as the faculties are 
expanded and strengthened, according to their own law 
of growth, through gentle and agreeable exercise. 



252 THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC. 

Wherever fatigue, confusion, and the sense of strain be- 
gin, there the virtue of the exercise ceases, whether for 
promoting the growth of the powers or for the training 
and disciplining of the powers as they exist. Loss and 
waste — it may be much, it may be little — begin at this 
point, and go forward, from this point, at a constantly 
accelerating ratio. 

In college, thirty years ago, those of us who were 
given to athleticism were accustomed to use heavy 
dumb-bells, the heavier, we thought, the better. 
Twenty-four and thirty-two pounders, the famous 
" fifty-sixes," and even eighty-pound bells were much in 
favor with young fellows who desired to become strong. 
To-day, a prize fighter prepai'ing to contest the cham- 
pionship of the world uses, habitually, very light dumb- 
bells, just heavy enough to give a purpose to his blow 
and to be distinctly felt at the end of the stroke. He 
makes, with the light bell, ten strokes to one he would 
make with the heavy bell, and gets twice as much good 
from the exercise. If this be the part of wisdom for 
the grown giant, overflowing with the exuberance of his 
strength, much more is such a course desirable in the 
case of young, tender children, yet in the gristle, the 
frame and brain still plastic and yielding, with the possi- 
bilities of manhood and womanhood but dimly inti- 
mated. Whether for the promotion of future growth, 
or for the training of the powers as they are, or for the 
acquisition of the inestimable art of rapid and accurate 
computation, school exercises in arithmetic should, in 



ARITHMETIC IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 253 

the opinion of the Boston Board, be easy and simple, 
with the resulting advantage of becoming more fre- 
quent than is possible, within any reasonable limits of 
time, in the case of the highly complicated and difficult 
sums and problems with which the traditional gymnastic 
deals. 

The greatest enemy, however, to true arithmetical 
work is found in so-called practical or illustrative prob- 
lems, which are freely given to our pupils, of a degree 
of difficulty and complexity altogether unsuited to their 
age and mental development. It is bad enough to give 
boys and girls of twelve and fourteen years of age nu- 
merical operations far exceeding in difficulty those which 
any bank cashier has to perform from one yearns end to 
another; to require them to extract the cube root of 
three-sevenths; to pile one irregular and jagged fraction 
on top of another and then ask them to divide or mul- 
tiply this by an arithmetical monstrosity as hideous and 
impossible as itself. But, at least, a pupil so engaged 
is actually dealing all the time with numbers. It is 
through so-called practical and illustrative problems 
that bad teaching in arithmetic does its worst. The loss 
of time may be no greater; but the resulting confusion 
and sense of strain are apt to be more bewildering and 
distracting to children of the ages concerned. Every- 
teacher and every parent whose children have been given 
lessons in home arithmetic, know too well the kind of 
problems to which allusion is made. I am, myself, no 
bad mathematician, and all the reasoning powers with 



264 THE TEACHINO OF ARITHMETIC. 

which nature endowed me have long been as fully de- 
veloped as they are ever likely to be; but I have, not 
infrequently, been puzzled, and at times foaled, by the 
subtle logical difficulty running through one of these 
problems, given to my own children. The head-master 
of one of our Boston high schools confessed to me that 
he had sometimes been unable to unravel one of these 
tangled skeins, in trying to help his own daughter 
through her evening's work. During this summer, Dr. 
Fairbairn, the distinguished head of one of the colleges 
of Oxford, England, told me that not only had he him- 
self encountered a similar difficulty, in the case of his 
own children, but that, on one occasion, having as his 
guest one of the first mathematicians of England, the 
two together had been completely puzzled by one of 
these arithmetical conundrums. 

The vice of such problems is of a double nature. 
First, there is the fact of undue complexity and diffi- 
culty. Secondly, there is the fact that the special 
faculty concerned does not normally develop in the 
child's mind until a later period of life than that gener- 
ally concerned in these operations. In this connection 
I refer to the letters from President Porter and Profes- 
sors Howison, James, and Stanley Hall,^ which were 
made a part of my address to the Boston school board 
on the 12th of April last. For one, I believe it to be 
altogether undesirable to attempt to pry this faculty up 
from the mass of mind, in which, by nature's wise pro- 
1 See p. 227, ante.—Ej>. 



ARITHMETIC IN THE BOSTON SCHOOLS. 255 

vision, it still lies embedded and dormant, and to bring 
it prematurely into consciousness and exercise. 

AVhether one agrees with the reasons which have been 
presented, or not, such is the law of the schools of Bos- 
ton to-day, under adequate authority; and those teachers 
who still believe that children should be harassed and 
distressed in education, for their souls' and minds' good; 
that the exercises of the growing boy or girl should be 
carried to the point of strain; and that sometimes the 
pupil should even be set examples he cannot perform, 
will perforce have to resort to some instrument of torture 
other than arithmetic. 



COLLEGE PROBLEMS 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS 
1893 



Address before the Phi Beta Kappa SociETy, 
Alpha op Massachusetts, at Cambridob, June 29, 1893. 
From the Technology Quarterly. July, 1893 : and the 
Harvard Gi'aduates' Magazine, Setptember, 1893. 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 

I TEUST it will not be deemed beneath the dignity of 
this occasion that I should ask your attention to a few 
thoughts regarding college athletics. No theme is to- 
day of greater consequence to the colleges and universi- 
ties of our land, whether as influencing school discipline 
or as affecting the standard of scholarship. Alike those 
who applaud and those who deprecate the growth of 
athletics must admit the importance of the subject. 

The past ten years have witnessed a remarkable devel- 
opment in the direction indicated, which we may well 
pause to consider. The rising passion for athletics has 
carried all before it. Thus far, at least, there is no sign 
of reaction or even of the exhaustion of the forward 
impulse. Honors in football, in baseball, and in rowing 
have come to be esteemed of equal value with honors in 
the classics, in philosophy, or in mathematics; and if the 
movement shall continue at the same rate it will soon be 
fairly a question whether the letters A. B. in the college 
degree stand for bachelor of arts more than for bachelor 
of athletics. 

Among instructors and the governing bodies of our 
colleges there is a wide difference of sentiment on the 
subject. Some applaud, some doubt, some disapprove; 
others are simply dazed and know not what to think, or 
suspend all judgment waiting to see how much farther 

259 



260 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

the rising tide will encroach upon the shore. In the 
larger community there is, perhaps, an even more pro- 
nounced divergence of opinion. Few college presidents 
or professors but see some good in the new movement 
and sympathize largely with the enthusiasm of their 
pupils. But there is a host of editors, preachers, and 
men of affairs in the outside world, and a host of parents 
and guardians more directly concerned, who are sure 
that it is all of evil; that the colleges are simply going 
wild over athletic sports, preparing the way for the 
downfall of the traditional system of education. To 
many of these it is a monstrous thing that large bodies 
of young men should give themselves up to contests of 
skill and strength, and that larger bodies still should find 
in these contests the chief interest of their college life. 

Fairly to approach the subject we need to consider 
the state of things which existed prior to the War of 
Secession; in other words, to go back just one human 
generation, as a human generation is usually computed. 
In those days gymnastics held but a small, a very small, 
place in American colleges; while throughout the wider 
community there was almost no athleticism. The two 
most important exceptions to the latter statement were 
found in the occasional outlawed and always disreputa- 
ble prize fight, generally with some international com- 
plication, genuine or manufactured, for the sake of 
stimulating public interest, and in a small amount of 
rather poor, unscientific boat-racing. Almost no honor 
was then given to a young man because he was strong, 



COLLEGE ATULETICS. 261 

Bwift, courageous, or enduring. The college hero of 
those days was apt to be a young man of towering fore- 
head, from which the hair was carefully brushed back- 
wards and upwards to give the full effect to his remark- 
able phrenological developments. His cheeks were 
pale, his digestion pretty certain to be bad. He was 
self-conscious, introspective, and indulged in moods as 
became a child of genius. He had yearnings and aspi- 
rations, and not infrequently mistook physical lassitude 
for intellectuality, and the gnawings of dyspepsia for 
spiritual cravings. He would have gravely distrusted 
his mission and his calling had he found himself at any 
time playing ball. He went through moral crises and 
mental fermentations which seemed to him tremendous. 
From the gloomy recesses of his ill-kept and unventi- 
lated room he periodically came forth to astound his 
fellow students with poor imitations of Coleridge, De 
Quincey, and Carlyle, or of Goethe in translation. 

iNot all college heroes of those days were of this 
familiar type. Sometimes they were thunderous orators, 
more Websterian than "Webster, who could by a single 
effort lift themselves to the full height of perorations 
which in the senate or the forum are the culmination of 
great arguments and of many a passionate appeal. 
Sometimes, though more rarely, the college hero was a 
delightfully wicked fellow, who did, or at least affected 
to do, naughty things, wrote satirical verses, was sup- 
posed to know life, and in various ways exerted a bale- 
ful fascination over his fellow students. But, however 



262 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

the type of the college hero might vary, speech-making, 
debating, or fine writing were the be-all and the end-all 
of college training, as in the world outside the college 
speech-making, debating, or fine writing were the sole 
recognized signs and proofs of greatness. Physical 
force, dexterity, and endurance, capacity for action, 
nerve, and will-power went for little or nothing, so far 
as public admiration was concerned. Statesmanship 
itself was perverted by eagerness to seek occasions for 
oratorical display. Men of business, men of affairs, men 
of prudence, moderation, and real ability were crowded 
out of our legislative halls by shrill-voiced declaimera 
who could catch the ear of a nation given over to the 
lust of words. " Sir," once said Daniel Webster, bend- 
ing those tremendous brows upon a young man after- 
wards renowned among the great attorney generals of 
the United States, " sir, the curse of this country has 
been its eloquent men." 

What was the reason for this state of things regarding 
the college ideals of a generation ago, so strongly con- 
trasted with what we see to-day? In part, bad physi- 
ology, or the absence of anything that could be called 
physiology, was responsible for it; but in greater part 
it was due, I believe, to the transcendentalism and senti- 
mentalism of the last quarter of the eighteenth and the 
first quarter of the nineteenth century, which had 
created false and pernicious opinions concerning per- 
sonal character and conduct. There was more than in- 
difference, there was contempt for physical prowess. A 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 263 

man who was known to be specially gifted in this way 
was thereby disparaged in public estimation. If he 
were known to make much of it, he was likely to be 
despised. It was taken for granted that he could not 
be good for anything else. Brains and brawn were sup- 
posed to be developed in inverse ratio. Affected notions 
about intellectuality and spirituality had almost com- 
plete control of the popular thought. The only things 
to be admired were mind and soul. " Mere bigness " 
was a favorite phrase of contempt. Strength was be- 
lieved to be closely akin to brutality. Danger, positive 
danger, to spirituality, if not also to morality, lay in 
physical force and exuberant vitality. The same no- 
tions perverted the ideals of womanly grace and beauty. 
Robust \^gor, a hearty appetite, and a ruddy complexion 
would have been deemed incompatible with the func- 
tion of the heroine of a popular novel or a sentimental 
poem, or even with the part of a belle in society. Lan- 
guor and pallor were attractive, delicacy of frame and 
limb was admired. 

The notions referred to were doubtless closely con- 
nected with the political ideas of those days. It was an 
era of transcendentalism in politics. Political mechan- 
ism was disparaged. The philosophy of the age 
declared that a virtuous people would of themselves 
make a good government. On the other hand, it was 
impossible so to organize the public force as to give a 
people a government that should be better than themr 
selves. The maxim, " A stream cannot rise higher than 



264 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

its source," was a conclusive answer to all pleas for tlie 
scientific treatment of political problems. There was 
an affectation of indifference towards size and numbers 
in national life. Quality, not quantity, was in the eyes 
of the men of those days the sole test of the worthiness 
and the greatness of a people. Mass went for nothing. 
" Mere bigness " was here, as in the case of the indi- 
vidual, a term of infinite contempt. I never shall forget 
the rebuke, not unkindly meant or harshly spoken, which 
I received from a distinguished leader of public thought 
for boasting in a boyish vein about the extent of my 
country and the greatness of its resources. 

The indifference toward, or the dislike of, athletics a 
generation or two ago was also largely due to the reli- 
gious ideas and feelings of the time. The body was but 
a shell, a prison in which the soul was confined, and 
against whose bars its aspirations continually beat and 
bruised themselves. In another image, the body was a 
wayside bam in which the weary pilgrim laid himself 
down to rest till break of day. The flesh was an incum- 
brance to the spirit, a clog, a burden, a snare. Men had 
been told to " keep the body under," and perchance this 
was thought to be an easier task if that body were small 
and weak. 

I do not mean to be understood as asserting that in 
those days the mens sana in corpore sano was never 
spoken of, or that there was no formal teaching of the 
duty of preserving bodily health. Such precepts, how- 
ever, could have little effect against general tendencies 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 265 

of thought and feeling ; and even among the most intelli- 
gent teachers of those days there was manifest a strong 
dislike, a sharp shrinking from all dwelling upon th,e 
physical basis of life, as savoring of materialism. As to 
acknowledging the relationship of man to the other 
orders of animals, that would have filled the pious mind 
with horror. The philosophy of the time had, indeed, 
to admit that the soul was in a degree conditioned as to 
its manifestations, and especially as to its influence upon 
others, by purely physical causes. But the soul itself 
was a thing transcendent, supernal, and self-sufficing, 
which when released from the clogs of flesh became at 
once as perfect, pure, free, and strong as if its tenement, 
while in residence here, had been more worthy of it. 

All the notions referred to, so prevalent and so potent 
in at least this section of the United States forty or 
seventy years ago, have gone, and gone together. 
Other ideas better suited to inspire a progressive civiliza- 
tion have taken their place. In part this has been due 
to the decay of superstitions derived from primitive 
savagery, in part to the effects of positive teaching, in 
greater part still to further experience of life. Biology 
has done its share; political education has done its share; 
the war of secession wrought its appointed work in the 
same direction. The men of to-day are generally agreed 
that they are likely to live long enough to make it wise 
to think a hundred times how they shall live, to once 
thinking how they shall die. The caravansary idea of 
existence has been abandoned. Man is not a pilgrim, 



266 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

but a citizen. He is going to tarry nights enough to 
make it worth while to patch up the tenement and even 
to look into the drainage. This world is a place to work 
in; activity and development, not suffering or self- 
repression, its law. 

The present generation has witnessed a wonderful 
diminution of spiritual self-consciousness. Better 
physiology, coinciding with some changes in popular 
ideals, has driven away the notions about the flesh as an 
incumbrance, a clog, a burden, a snare. It is seen that 
morbid or even merely feeble conditions of body tend to 
generate delusions, selfishness, and susceptibility to the 
worst impulses. This is seen to be the case not the less 
because of the saintliness and the heroic constancy of a 
million sufferers from pain and infirmity. Hearty 
physical force may, indeed, consist with vicious desires, 
but it does not favor them. On the contrary, it does in 
a way and in a degree tend to diminish and to uproot 
them. Vicious desires are at their worst in feebleness 
and in morbid conditions of body. The sounder a man 
is, the stronger he is, the less — other things equal — is he 
subject to what is bad and degrading; the more pleasure 
does he take in what is natural, healthful, and elevating. 
To a man perfectly sane physically life itself becomes 
a joy. The relish for it does not need to be stimulated 
by the spices of vicious indulgence any more than a 
healthy appetite needs to be stimulated by the spices of 
the cuisine. 

The sociological investigations into the causes and 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 267 

manifestations of crime, so actively in progress during 
the past few years, have added much to our knowledge 
of human nature in its self-respecting and law-abiding 
phases. The popular idea of the criminal once was 
that of a powerful brute, whose offenses against society 
resulted from an excess of physical vigor not counter- 
balanced by moral and intellectual forces. It is now 
known that, as a matter of fact, the prisoners in our jails 
are, as a class, undersized and undervitalized creatures, 
often with a deficiency of co-ordination between their 
faculties, sometimes with a minimum of control over 
their own actions and little adaptability to social and in- 
dustrial functions. In the remarkable, the truly 
admirable reformatory enterprise of Superintendent 
Brockway at Elmira, gymnastics, regulated exercise, 
and manual training perform a most important part. 

In the revolution of thought regarding bodily devel- 
opment and physical prowess Mr. Beecher exerted a 
great influence. He it was who led off in favor of Mus- 
cular Christianity. During the controversy on that 
subject which attracted so much attention just before 
the outbreak of our great war there was, we must admit, 
not a little exaggeration on the part of the advocates of 
physical culture. Many wrote and spoke as if all evil 
were to be worked off in the gymnasium and on the race 
track; as if every vice of human nature would exude 
through the pores of the skin were perspiration only 
sufficiently active and long enough maintained. But 
in spite of much that was crude and foolish, these men 



268 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

had hold of a great truth, and thej did not let go until 
thej had drawn it out into the light. The War of 
Secession, also, which has been adverted to, came in to 
produce a vast change in popular sentiments and ideals, 
as it showed how much nobler are strength of will, firm- 
ness of purpose, resolution to endure, and capacity for 
action than are the qualities of the speech-maker and the 
fine writer, which the nation had once agreed chiefly to 
admire. 

With this change of opinion regarding physical force 
and physical training in the individual has come a 
notable change in the political philosophy of the age. 
Larger experience of affairs has shown the folly of dis- 
regarding political mechanism. It is seen that it is hard 
enough to keep the balance of forces upon the right side, 
if every safeguard be adopted, every device used, and 
every means employed to give a preference to those who 
stand for order, decency, and honesty in the community. 
We are all now for making the devil fight with the sun 
in his eyes, instead of at his back, and with the advan- 
tage of the ground against him, instead of in his favor. 
We no longer with confidence hold that a virtuous people 
will necessarily have a good government. On the con- 
trary, we recognize that a people virtuous above the 
average may be made, through a bad organization of the 
public forces, to act almost as if they were the most 
cowardly and dishonest of their kind, as did our fore- 
fathers under the confederation of 1781-87. It is true 
that the stream may not of itself rise higher than its 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 2G9 

source, but by machinery we can send a stream a good 
deal higher than its source, and can make it do there 
more of vitally essential work than could all the waters 
of old ocean lying at their level. Instead of discarding 
political mechanism, therefore, the men of to-day believe 
in political machinery, like that of the Australian ballot 
system. They have learned that by means of it they 
can help tlie cause of righteousness, and at times turn 
the scale against the forces of evil. They not only be- 
lieve in political machinery, they even believe in politi- 
cal machines, actual structures of wood and glass like 
the patent ballot-box, as important agencies to defeat 
the baser elements of society. 

Again, " mere bigness " has ceased to be a term of 
contempt as applied to nations. Power in a people has 
become a thing admired. It is felt that it is indeed a 
glorious thing to have a giant's strength ; nor is it longer 
believed that the disposition to use strength tyrannously 
grows with the opportunity. The idea once prevalent 
that its possession leads to brutality and insolence has 
not been borne out by the history of our own people. 
As the United States have gro^vn more powerful they 
have grown more peaceful. In the early days of the 
republic our petulance, irritability, and pugnacity made 
us a nuisance and a pest among the nations. Swagger 
and unbounded brag characterized our earlier diplomatic 
history; while the war with Mexico, the cheap talk about 
" manifest destiny," and the filibustering excursions of 
the middle of the century seemed to point us out as a 



270 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

bad neiglibor to the strong and a bully towards tbe 
weak. 

Doubtless tbe slave power was in some degree ac- 
countable for tbis; but in greater measure it was due to 
lack of confidence in ourselves. We were always afraid 
that we were not going to be respected and treated with 
due consideration. We felt that we were looked down 
upon because we were young and small. No sooner 
was the mighty demonstration made of our courage and 
military strength in that great Civil War which will 
always remain one of the marvels of human history, than 
all this fell away from the nation like some loathsome 
rheum of childhood. To-day Canada and Mexico re- 
pose under the shadow of our iiresistible power without 
an apprehension of harm or wrong, and it is even diffi- 
cult to secure from an over-lavish Congress appropria- 
tions sufficient to enable us to make a decent show of 
naval power in the great harbors of the world. It is true 
we have recently suffered an apparent brief access of 
jingoism, owing to certain unfortunate political compli- 
cations; but the readiness with which the affair with 
Chile was adjusted and the general applause with which 
our flag was hauled down from the government house 
at Hawaii showed how superficial and how partial was 
the infection. 

After this long and tedious statement of changes in 
the ideas and sentiments of our people in the several 
directions indicated, is it too much to say that, as a com- 
munity, we have got down upon a sound, practical, sen- 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 271 

sible, worldly basis of life, much more promising for 
morality, for a steadily progressive civilization, for 
enduring enthusiasms — aye, for worthy aspirations and 
a true spirituality — than the unreal, morbid transcen- 
dentalism and sentimentalism of three, two, or even only 
one generation ago? 

Among the many things, good or bad as people may 
esteem them, resulting from the changes in feelings, 
views, and ideals which have been indicated, are two 
which especially concern colleges and college men: The 
first is the general disappearance, most fortunate as I 
esteem it, of the literary societies formerly so flourish- 
ing, and the decay of oratory, declamation, and debate, 
which to many once made up the main interest of college 
life. The second is the rapid growth of athletics, in 
which immense honor is given to young men because 
they are strong, swift, enduring, and brave; in which 
the blood of the whole community is stirred by physical 
contests among the picked youth of the land as once it 
was stirred only by tales of battle. This last it is which 
has given me my subject to-day. 

That the general introduction of gymnastics into col- 
leges is desirable, few will deny. Young men of the 
college age whose occupations are largely sedentary 
should be encouraged to undertake systematic and ex- 
tended exercise in order to correct the faults of the study 
and recitation-room, to expand their frames, and to pro- 
mote an active circulation. Amherst is entitled to the 
high honor of being the first of the American colleges 



272 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

to make ample and suitable provision for students' needs 
in this respect. In 1861, under the presidency of Dr. 
Stearns, a gymnasium, large and well equipped accord- 
ing to the standard of those days, was placed upon the 
campus; daily exercise was made compulsory upon stu- 
dents not excused for cause, and a certificated physician 
was made director of physical culture and lecturer on 
physiology and hygiene. Few colleges have followed 
Amherst in making exercise other than in the form of 
military drill compulsory;* but fewer still now fail to 
afford their pupils opportunity for voluntary gym- 
nastics to the top of their bent. The improvement thus 
wrought in the physique of our college students does not 
need to be shown statistically; it is manifest to the eye 
of the most casual observer who remembers the former 
state of things. So far, there is no ground of debate; 

' There is no such source of t/idiscipline as pretended military drill 
and training when the requirements are not promptly, severely, and 
unflinchingly enforced. There is no better training for mind and 
body than military drill well and intelligently carried on. All mod- 
ern drill associates with itself "setting-up" exercises and regulated 
gymnastics. The modern soldier must be an athlete. 

I think there is nothing which the young men of this country need 
more than to be taught to obey, to " mind," as the boys say; and to 
do it without any nonsense, or "back talk," or delay. For lack of 
this we are raising up a large class of boys who, in mind and charac- 
ter, are perfect " punk," without fiber and without grain. 

I do not say that militar}' training and drill in high schools, even 
under the best officers, would remedy all this, — in most cases the 
evil is done before the boy reaches that point, — but I have no doubt 
that the effects would be beneficial. I am not in favor, however, of 
small or feeble boys carrying muskets. — Ans^cer to the question : 
"Do you believe that military drills are consistent with pedagogy?" 
asked in a circular letter from the editors of "Mind and Body" 1896. 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 273 

difference of opinion exists only witli respect to the com- 
petitive sports and games which have grown out of the 
newly awakened interest in physical prowess. 

And here let me propose a distinction between gym- 
nastics and athletics, which will be carried through the 
remainder of this discussion. That distinction is not 
one based upon etymology, but has reference to current 
usage: 

Gymnastics are for individual training and develop- 
ment, with health strongly in view. Athletics take the 
form of competition and contest; emulation is their mov- 
ing spirit, glory their aim. 

As thus distinguished in their primary objects, ath- 
letics differ from gymnastics in two respects: First, by 
specialization, as when a man chooses his line of work in 
athletics — whether that be pole-vaulting, or hurdle- 
racing, or rowing, or pitching in baseball, or playing a 
certain position in football — and thereafter devotes his 
energies to working himself up to the highest point of 
efficiency in that line; secondly, by excess in the amount 
of exercise over what would be required or would be per- 
formed without the introduction of the spirit of emula- 
tion. So great is this excess that it may not unfairly be 
said that athletics begin where gymnastics leave off. 

The effects of specialization in athletics are too much 
a matter of detail to be entered upon here. Suffice it, 
in a word, to say that they are not unlike those of special- 
ization in industry — good and evil being mingled, with, 
in general, the preponderance largely on the side of the 



274 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

good. Specialization affords to bodily exercise a more 
direct object and creates a far more intense and sustained 
interest. Moreover, for the best specialized work it is 
well known that at least a fair all-around development 
is almost always a necessary condition. 

The excess of exercise in athletics over gymnastics, 
as we have defined these terms, is it of good or of evil? 
Is it a gain, or mere waste, or a positive injury? Gym- 
nastics are a means to the end of health and vigor. 
Athletics become an end in themselves. With excep- 
tions too inconsiderable to be enumerated, the athlete 
competing for championship honors takes more exercise, 
often far more exercise, than is required for health and 
strength with a view to the peaceful and industrial pur- 
suits of life. Vital force is consumed, not created, by 
the final contests in which he engages, and not infre- 
quently by the training to which he subjects himself in 
preparation for them. The consumption of vital force 
in athletics, if we contemplate young men who are fully 
grown or nearly so, may be considered as of two degrees: 
First, where vital force is consumed in competitive 
sports and games as it might be consumed in study or in 
the production of wealth, without impairing the consti- 
tution or diminishing the physical endowment upon the 
strength of which the subsequent work of life is to be 
done ; secondly, where exercise is carried so far and such 
violent exertions are made that not merely is the current 
supply of vigor used up in this way, but the constitution 
is undermined and injuries are sustained or exhaustion 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 215 

induced wliich result in leaving the man less healthy or 
less powerful through the remaining years of his life. 

Of the severer forms of athletic competition and con- 
test, which injuriously affect the constitution and per- 
manently impair the vital force, but one thing can be 
said: they are evil and only e\dL No earthly object, 
except the saving of others' lives or the defense of one's 
country, could justify such destructive exercises and 
exertions. I am disposed, however, to believe that there 
has been much exaggeration in the public mind regard- 
ing this matter, and that instances of permanent injury 
from, athletics are fewer than popular rumor or maternal 
anxiety makes them to be. The life history of the lead- 
ing football players of the past fifteen years, notwith- 
standing the frequency with which contusions, sprains, 
and even broken bones occur in the tremendous strug- 
gles of that mighty game, makes up a record of vitality 
and activity in the period succeeding graduation which 
proves that, despite the occasional outcries of the press, 
this form of athletic contest works little enduring injury 
among thoroughly trained competitors. The more 
serious accidents of football generally occur in the be- 
ginning of the season and among players who have not 
passed carefully through the hardening stages of prac- 
tice. Boat-racing is probably fraught with much more 
real peril to its participants; yet a distinguished English 
statistician, studying the life history of three hundred 
and twenty " Oxford oars," has reached the conclusion 
that, even after making due allowance for the fact that 



276 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

these were all at the stai*t picked men, this great body of 
athletes showed a vitality distinctly above the average. 
Yet, when all has been said, it is still beyond question 
true that in the present intense interest in physical 
contests there is a real danger to be guarded against, 
especially among the younger and less experienced 
competitoi's. 

Of those physical contests which result merely in the 
consumption at the time of current physical force which 
would otherwise, or might otherwise, be devoted to 
study, we cannot dispose so confidently and summarily. 
To those who hold to the good old notion — the excellent, 
virtuous notion — that all young men go to college to 
maJje themselves scholars, it is, indeed, a great trial to 
have to contemplate a state of things in which no incon- 
siderable proportion of students treat scholarship as an 
object distinctly subordinate to gladiatorial prowess, and 
who are graduated really, if they are graduated at all, in 
athletics as a major, with classics, or mathematics, or 
philosophy, or something else as a minor, — or perhaps 
we should say, a minimum. Certainly this presents a 
view of college life which would have filled with horror 
the founders and early governors of our New England 
colleges. And it needs to be said at the outset, in deal- 
ing with this subject, that there are hosts of young men 
coming to college whose circumstances and means and 
views and plans of life are such that they cannot afford 
to treat their educational privileges in this way; who if 
they " go into athletics," in the accepted sense of that 



COLLEGE ATHLETLC8. 277 

phrase, will sacrifice the one opportunity offered them; 
whose presence with their classes means a degree of sac- 
rifice and self-denial on the part of parents and friends 
which would make it little less than profanation to waste 
an hour of tlie time purchased at such a price. And yet, 
with due consideration for the rights and interests of 
students like these, college athletics confessedly as an 
end in themselves are not wholly evil. Several things 
have to be considered before we are fairly in a position 
to pass judgment upon them. 

The least important thing that can be said in their 
favor is that they afford enjoyment to vast numbers 
throughout the land ; yet, for one, I would not treat even 
this consideration as unworthy of respect. The college 
athletics of to-day do wonderfully light up the life of 
our people. The great recurring contests and the inter- 
mediate practice games and friendly competitions of the 
several teams give acute delight to a large and increas- 
ing constituency. This nation has long shown the pain- 
ful need of more in the way of popular amusement, of 
more that shall call men in great throngs out into the 
open air, of more that shall arouse an interest in some- 
thing besides money-getting or professional preferment. 
In these respects college athletics have made an impor- 
tant contribution within the past few years. The mar- 
velous rapidity with which football has spread and is 
still spreading throughout the Western and Southern 
States shows how eagerly it is welcomed as a relief to 
the monotony of life. 



278 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

A stronger plea for college athletics is made when it 
is urged that they result in stimulating an interest in 
gymnastics not only among those students who do not 
engage in competitive contests, but also throughout the 
general community. The effect of this may easily be 
exaggerated. There is many a weak-kneed collegian 
who crawls out to witness the great baseball or football 
game of the year, looks on with intense delight, cheers the 
victors, if of his own side, as loudly as his limited lung 
capacity will permit, and then, when all is over, crawls 
back again to his room without so much as a conscious 
impulse to improve his own bodily condition. Yet it is 
certain that the cause indicated has an influence, and an 
influence not inconsiderable, for good. Admiration for 
manly prowess and the contemplation of fine physical 
development cannot fail to secure a much wider cultiva- 
tion of gymnastics than would take place without it. 

But, again, it must be said that the favorite athletics 
of to-day are, in great measure, such as call for more 
than mere strength and swiftness. They demand, also, 
steadiness of nerve, quickness of apprehension, coolness, 
resourcefulness, self-knowledge, self-reliance. Further 
still, they often demand of the contestants the ability to 
work with others, power of combination, readiness to 
subordinate individual impulses, selfish desires, an.d even 
personal credit to a common end. These are all quali- 
ties useful in any profession; in some professions they 
are of the highest value; and it cannot be gainsaid that 
it is the normal effect of certain kinds of athletic sports 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 279 

to develop these qualities among the contestants, as well 
as to afford impressive examples to the minds of the 
spectators. So genuine does this advantage appear to 
me that were I superintendent of the academy at West 
Point I would encourage the game of football among 
the cadets as a military exercise of no mean importance. 
It is the opinion of most educated Englishmen that the 
cultivation of this sport in the public schools of that 
country has had not a little to do with the courage, ad- 
dress, and energy with which the graduates of Rugby, 
Eton, and Harrow have made their way through dangers 
and over difficulties in all quarters of the globe. 

The last consideration which I would adduce to show 
that what is sacrificed in athletics is not all lost is that in 
the competitive contests of our colleges something akin 
to patriotism and public spirit is developed, with results, 
on the whole, of good. It is true that young men often 
carry their manifestations of zeal and devotion to their 
colleges too far. Yet, both as counteracting the selfish, 
individualistic tendencies of the age and as an antidote 
to the nil admirari affectations of our older colleges, it 
is a good thing that the body of students should now and 
then be stirred to the very depths of their souls; that 
they should have something outside themselves to care 
for; that they should learn to love passionately, even if 
a little animosity towards rivals must mingle with their 
patriotic fervor; that they should at times palpitate with 
hope and fear and anxiety in the view of objects which 
can bring to them personally neither gain nor loss. 



280 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

Of tlie special evils of college athletics as now culti- 
vated I do not purpose to speak at length. Some of 
those at present most clearly perceived are chiefly due 
to newness and rawness, and will of themselves dis- 
appear, in whole or in part, with time and further ex- 
perience. Faults of method have yet to be eliminated; 
the traditions of the several games have yet to be 
created. For example, that regard for fair play, that 
respect for the rights of an opponent, that deference to 
the decisions of the umpire, so conspicuous in England, 
have there been the work of generations. They cannot 
be built up in a day with us. Yet our people are won- 
derfully quick to learn, especially to learn everytliing 
that conduces to harmony and adjustment of claims ; the 
American is eminently and pre-eminently a political ani- 
mal; and nowhere in the w^orld are great crowds so 
orderly, peaceable, and good-natured as here. 

One of the first things which should receive the atten- 
tion of all lovers of fair play is the complete abolition, 
onoe and for all, of the unsportsmanlike system of organ- 
ized cheering by great bodies of collegians grouped 
together for the purpose, with chosen youths of peculiar 
gesticulatory graces and extraordinary lung power to 
start the movement and " deacon off " the shouting. 
Such a line of conduct, thoughtlessly resorted to in the 
heat of partisanship, is unworthy of educated men. It 
is imfair to the visiting team, who by all the laws of 
courtesy are entitled to special consideration. How 
much more pleasing to the spectator, how much more 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 281 

creditable to the home college, if the stranger for the 
while within its gates were to be treated with something 
like the grace of antique chivalry! 

Again, we may confidently expect that the machinery 
for carrying on sports and contests will undergo a steady 
improvement. We see a remarkable instance of the 
virtue of this in the appointment of the second umpire 
at football, which at once did away with certain ten- 
dencies that had threatened to make the game imposr 
sible. Audiences, too, must be trained to appreciate 
the finer points, to applaud good work by whomsoever 
done, and to be as virtuous as a Greek chorus, to the end 
that the game may be played by the players and not by 
the spectators. The co-operation of alumni is also to be 
invoked to give wisdom, weight, and temper to the action 
of the undergraduate bodies. ISTot least, — nay, perhaps 
hardest of all, — Faculties are to be educated, to avoid 
intermeddling and petty dictation on the one hand, and 
to sustain the claims of scholarship and enforce the right 
discipline of college on the other. 

The last clause suggests one of the most important 
considerations related to the subject. Granting that 
something, and that not a little, of scholarship must be 
sacrificed if athletics are to be continued on anything 
approaching their present scale, may we yet believe that 
it is practicable to insist upon the requirement of at 
least respectable standing in the case of all who partici- 
pate in intercollegiate contests? I believe that this can 
be done without interfering with the general movement, 



282 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

provided college Faculties are true to themselves, fair, 
frank, and firm in dealing with the student bodies, and 
thoroughly honest in their treatment of the subject. I 
would not be understood to intimate that a certain 
amount of good sense would be out of place. 

Perhaps it will not be taken amiss if I allude here to 
the results of my own observation in a sister university 
regarding which it has been my lot to know more than. 
I do concerning Harvard. At Yale, and especially in 
the scientific department, the Faculty appear to me to 
have been highly successful in preventing a total sacri- 
fice of scholarly standing to intercollegiate sports. But 
a small proportion of the champion athletes in that uni- 
versity, a smaller proportion still in the scientific school, 
have been men at or near the foot of their classes — the 
sort of men who have to be hounded, threatened, and 
repeatedly conditioned in order to keep them up to the 
mark, l^ot a few of them, from Kennedy to Hartwell, 
have been high up on the roll of academic honor. I 
attribute this excellent result to the thoroughly good 
understanding between students and the Faculty, to the 
absence of petty prescriptions and of all intermeddling 
as to details, and to the frankness with which the few 
positive requirements relating to the subject ai'e stated 
and enforced. 

I fear there is little in what has been here said to give 
comfort to those who distrust and dislike college ath- 
letics — little which intimates the opinion that the 
athleticism of to-day is only a reaction after the former 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 283 

total neglect of gymnastics, or a mere passing passion 
among our youth. But if we concede that these exer- 
cises and contests are to hold their place in American 
life, is there no stopping-place, no point at which college 
authorities or the young men themselves, on their own 
motion, in their own discretion, for their own good, can 
say, " Thus far and no farther " ? 

I answer, yes; there is such a natural stopping-place. 
It is at the doors of the professional school. Among 
young men in the course of education, athletics should 
belong to the college stage; gymnastics to all stages. 
Whether this shall be done by regulation, or be left to 
the operation of forces working upon the minds of the 
individuals concerned, I believe the result indicated 
will, in either case, be reached. Already the under- 
graduate principle is widely though irregularly recog- 
nized; and the movement of opinion is still clearly in 
progress in this direction. Here at Harvard you have 
seen many a renowned champion put off athletics as he 
entered the law school or the medical school. The rule 
should be made of universal application; and it will re- 
quire but a little more discussion, a little higher educa- 
tion of student-opinion, to bring this about. In and 
after the professional school, whether that be a school of 
law, of medicine, of divinity, or of technology, there 
should be no representative teams. The principle of 
competition and championship should be dropped. In- 
dividuals should continue, at their pleasure, to play 
tennis or cricket or football with their classes, with pri- 



284 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

vate clubs, or in town and county matches; or if teams 
be formed in such schools they should not be regarded 
as carrying the honor of their institutions around with 
them. Such teams should not expect victory. They 
should play for exercise and for the fun of the thing, 
and should accept their inevitable beating with serenity 
and good nature, recognizing the fact that since they 
have taken up the serious work of professional prepara- 
tion for life they no longer have the time or the strength 
at command to make and to keep them champions. 

There is one remaining question regarding the ath- 
leticism of to-day, which I feel myself so little qualified 
to discuss that I did not even allude to it while enumerat- 
ing the things that might be said in favor of competitive 
sports, or at least in deprecation of the hostile criticisms 
directed upon them, but which in closing I would pro- 
pose to your sounder judgment and keener thought. 

It is whether the college athletics, which so many ap- 
prove and so many condemn, have not after all a deeper 
significance — whether this remarkable outburst of 
enthusiasm for physical development and for the per- 
fecting of the human body is not related, perhaps vitally 
and intimately, to the growth of a feeling for art in this 
new land of ours. jSTo classical scholar will for a mo- 
ment admit it to have been an accidental coincidence 
that the nation of the Old World which pursued ath- 
letics with the most passionate eagerness, which show- 
ered honors upon the victor in running or in wrestling 
not inferior to those which it gave to the author of an 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 285 

accepted tragedy — that nation whose tribes came by 
long and perilous journeys over stormy seas to witness 
the great athletic competitions by the banks of the 
Alpheus or on the Crisssean plain — was the same nation 
which carried the arts, and especially the plastic arts, to 
the highest point of perfection ever attained. 

If, indeed, there is believed to have been a vital con- 
nection between these seemingly diverse manifestations 
of Grecian life, who shall say that the remarkable en- 
thusiasm for physical training and the intense interest in 
athletic contests which have been so suddenly developed 
in our country may not be clearly seen a generation 
hence to have accompanied, and that through no acci- 
dental association, the elevation of art to a far higher 
and nobler place than it had before occupied in the 
thoughts and affections of our people? The life-class is 
the true school of the artist. The greatest of all who 
bear that name have been men who revered the human 
form, made it their chief study, and found in it their 
highest delight. If in truth this sublime passion is tak- 
ing possession of the nation, who shall estimate at a 
price the worth of that inspiration? The vision of the 
Apollo may yet rise to the view of thousands out and up 
from the arena at Springfield, as erst it rose before the 
thronging multitudes of Olympia. 



THE STUDY OF STATISTICS IN COL- 
LEGES AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS 
1890 



Fkom the Technology Quarterly, February, 1890. 



THE STUDY OF STATISTICS IN COLLEGES AND 
TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. 

During the past twenty or even ten years there has 
been an astonishingly rapid development of historical 
and economic studies in our higher institutions of learn- 
ing. At the recent meeting of the American Historical 
Association, in Washington, President Adams of Cor- 
nell presented an account of the work at present done in 
history in our leading colleges. To one who was gradu- 
ated thirty years ago, this account reads strangely 
enough. In place of, at the most, a single brief series 
of lectures on the so-called philosophy of history, we 
now find course after course of advanced historical study, 
with the free use of the library and with the most im- 
proved methods of the German Seminar, offered to stu- 
dents as a leading feature of their undergraduate work. 
Several of our American colleges have developed these 
courses in such variety, to such an extent, and with such 
a wealth of material, that they might not unfairly be 
called schools of history ; and every year sees this carried 
further and further, with continually better and better 
results. 

In the kindred department of economics, the progress 
made in recent times has been second only to that which 
we have noted regarding history. Indeed, the progress 
in the case of economics has been less only in respect to 

289 



290 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

the number of colleges which have undertaken extended 
courses. In the institutions where both the new depart- 
ments of study and research have been given scope, the 
extent to which political economy has shared in the 
growth of the past few years can scarcely be said to be 
inferior to that obtained by history. Neither in the 
ability and reputation of the instructing staff, nor in the 
number and variety of courses offered, nor in the attend- 
ance and enthusiasm of the classes formed, does political 
economy yield to history, at Hai-vard, or Yale, or Co- 
lumbia, or Cornell. Together these two closely related 
departments make up a very large and constantly in- 
creasing part of the modern university. 

Unfortunately, while this rapid development of his- 
torical and economic work has been going on, a branch 
of study which has the highest virtue at once to train the 
hand of the historical or the economic scholar and to 
furnish him with professional tools of the first impor- 
tance has been almost wholly neglected. I refer to 
statistics, whose very methods are hardly kno^vn to the 
great majority of our economists and historians; and 
which is still to have its first chair founded in an Ameri- 
can college. There are, indeed, a few schools where a 
little elementary instruction has, of recent years, been 
given in the use of figures as a means of testing socio- 
logical conclusions; but in no one of them has a full, 
proper course of statistics been established. It cannot 
be long, however, before the growing interest in eco- 
nomics and history will compel the recognition of 



THE STUDY OF STATISTICS. 291 

statistics as a distinct and an important part of tlie cur- 
riculum of every progressive institution. The main 
difficulty will be to find the men who have had the train- 
ing, at once severe and liberal, which will qualify them 
to inspire and direct these studies. 

The three uses of statistical study, aside from its value 
as a means of discipline, are, in their order from lowest 
to highest, as follows : 

First, to enable the student to detect the fallacies in 
conclusions drawn by others from quantitative state- 
ments concerning human affairs, actions, interests, in 
which adventitious elements lie concealed, or from 
which something essential, or at least relevant, has, by 
inadvertence or dishonest design, been excluded. 

Secondly, to enable the writer or the speaker upon 
politics, economics, history, or sociology safely and 
effectively to illustrate and emphasize his conclusions 
drawn from a study, itself perhaps mainly or wholly non- 
statistical, of the subject to which he devotes himself. 

Thirdly, statistics may, under proper direction and 
with due safeguards, be used for the discovery of social 
laws. 

The first of these objects could perhaps only be fully 
attained through those long and weary stages of train- 
ing which would be required to qualify one for the 
highest exercise of the statistical faculty, as last stated; 
but a very large part, at least, of the result desired, can 
be reached by a little very elementary instruction. To 
take an illustration from another department of study, 



292 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. ' 

we may suppose that an adequate course in logic, suffi- 
cient to make a man, otherwise well trained, a sound and 
accomplished reasoner, might be compassed in a certain 
number of exercises per week, continued through two 
academic years. Yet, if time be not afforded for such a 
course, a great deal might be done to enable the student 
to detect false conclusions on the part of others, and to 
save him from the grosser errors of reasoning in his own 
writing or speaking, by means of a dozen hours devoted 
to fallacies. In much the same way, if a full course in 
statistics cannot be given, a few exercises upon the 
abuses of statistics may serve at least to keep one from 
a certain class of blunders from which men of the 
greatest acuteness and learning might not otherwise be 
exempt. 

Let us take an illustration of the sort of errors against 
which the merest elementary study of statistics might 
prove a sufficient protection. A meritorious writer 
adduces as a proof of the great fall of prices which took 
place in New England between 1630 and 1640, that a 
cow which, at the former date, was worth £25 to £30, 
would have brought, at the latter date, but £5 to £6. 
Now the bare facts here are not in dispute; nor is it to be 
questioned that a fall, a great fall, in prices did take 
place in New England during the period referred to. 
Yet the statement quoted contains a gigantic blunder, — 
a blunder which a student of statistics would probably 
be incapable of making. In 1630, the value of a cow 
in New England represented the immense cost and risk 



THE STUDY OF STATISTICS. 293 

of bringing an animal, by a slow-sailing vessel, thousands 
of miles, through comparatively strange seas, into a for- 
eign climate. Ten years later, the value of a cow repre- 
sented only the cost and risk of rearing her upon the soil. 
The cow of 1630 might still be living, surrounded by 
ten, twenty, or fifty of her descendants, bom in ISTew 
England. 

Errors of this type are countless. They occur in the 
writings, they are heard in the speeches, of men learned 
and otherwise acute, but who have never been trained to 
detect the fallacies that lurk so cunningly under all 
groups of figures. Volumes might be filled with in- 
stances of statistical blunders of a class which a very ele- 
mentary course would forever render impossible to any 
careful writer or speaker. Such a course would em- 
brace a host of illustrations, affording examples of the 
kinds of error which especially beset the use of figures 
for sociological purposes, and would direct the attention 
of the student to the best means of exercising care and 
pains in escaping them. 

It is easy to say that, if statistics be in truth such 
" kittle cattle," if danger lurks thus under every group 
of figures relating to social and economic matters, it 
would be better to eschew statistics entirely. But man- 
kind will not consent to give up an agent of such power 
because of the abuses to which it is subject. If all men 
at once honest and candid were to forbear to employ 
statistics in such discussions, lest peradventure they 
should lead some astray, we may be sure that all the dis- 



294 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

honest and uncandid would resort to their tables and 
diagrams with redoubled zeal. There are few instincts 
more strong than that which urges men to give a quan- 
titative expression to the results of human experience. 
Men will do it, or have it done for them by others. No 
warning as to the possible errors of such evidence can 
prevent this appeal, or diminish the eagerness with 
which it will be made. What we must needs do, if we 
will promote the truth, is to instruct and exercise the 
citizen, as far as we may, in the scrutinizing, sifting, and 
testing of alleged statistical proofs. 

What has just now been said brings me to the second 
of the objects enumerated as to be sought through the 
study of statistics: namely, to qualify and prepare the 
future writer or speaker upon political and economic and 
social questions safely and effectively to illustrate his 
conclusions, derived perhaps through processes mainly 
or wholly non-statistical. I have said that the instinct 
which leads men to seek quantitative statements for the 
results of human experience is one of the strongest in 
our nature; and that people will have this done, whether 
it is to be done rightly or Avrongly. He then, who, in 
addition to the merits of sound and just thinking on 
social subjects, possesses the power of aptly using statis- 
tics, acquires thereby a great advantage, whether in 
exposition or in controversy, over almost anyone, how- 
ever gifted or brilliant in argument or in the graces of 
speech, who has not this peculiar faculty. All who have 
widely observed audiences gathered for the purposes of 



THE STUDY OF STATISTICS. 295 

political discussion must have seen the almost ludicrous 
liking which they have for statistical statements. The 
crudest thinking is oftentimes carried through by an 
array of worthless statistics, which would not bear a mo- 
ment of cool, critical investigation. Quantitative state- 
ments that are scarcely even relevant to the subject are, 
for popular purposes, better than none. What power, 
then, can a real master of statistics wield over his hearers! 
Attend a meeting where Mr. David Wells is speaking, 
and see how he holds the crowded audience in close at- 
tention for two hours, with no help from rhetoric, elocu- 
tion, or gesticulation, merely by the strong, vivid, effect- 
ive way in which he marshals figures. There are few 
orators who can so completely command the thoughts of 
their hearers, for the same length of time, by all the 
graces of speech, or even by stately and beautiful 
thoughts, as this publicist, whose style of speaking is not 
merely unfinished, but positively bad. Mr. Cobden 
owed very much of his extraordinary power to the same 
cause. Mr. Gladstone is an even more remarkable 
example of the virtue of this art. Unthinking people 
say that he must be a wonderful orator, because, in spite 
of the serried masses of figures which belong to a budget 
speech, he has more than once held the House of Com- 
mons strictly silent and attentive for the space of three 
or four hours. The fact is that that remarkable success 
was not obtained in spite of statistics, but by reason of 
them. There is no spectacle on which men, whether 
more or less educated, look with more breathless interest 



296 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

than the marshaling of a vast array of figures which 
move and take their allotted place, in natural succession 
and in due order, at the bidding of a real master of that 
art. 

Since so much popular interest attaches to the use of 
statistics in addressing any large audience, whether from 
the platform or from the author's or editor's desk, it is 
clearly worth while for every person who is under train- 
ing to become a writer or a public speaker to undertake 
all the instruction and practice which may be necessary 
to enable him to put together at least clearly and cor- 
rectly the facts and figures which relate to any chosen 
subject. We cannot all be Cobdens, Gladstones, or 
Wellses; but every educated man can learn to construct 
tables and diagrams which will bear the test of a fair 
scrutiny and liberal criticism. To do aught in the way. 
of statistics at which fools will not peck is, of course, be- 
yond any man's power. 

Those who have never tried their hand at statistical 
work will fail to appreciate the difficulties to be encoun- 
tered at the start and the frequently recurring need of 
going back and beginning all over again. To go to a 
series of extended tables with multitudinous subdi- 
visions, in which a given total is distributed among many 
classes, and to take therefrom just what you want, no 
more, no less, and no other, — to make sure that your 
parts when put together will form a whole, and that no 
direction conveyed by the heading of a single column 
has been neglected, — is a task for which men must be 



THE STUDY OF STATISTICS. 297 

trained, and in which, they must be practiced, going from 
simple and easy examples to complex and difficult ones, 
by patient steps. The great majority of editors and 
writers for the press, the great majority of legislators 
and public speakers, either fail in such work, or, more 
likely, judiciously avoid the attempt, even though sta- 
tistical matter altogether relevant to the subject, and 
which might be made most interesting to their readers 
or hearers, lies on every side of them. In my long ex- 
perience in office at Washington, nothing struck me 
more forcibly than the helplessness of Congressmen — 
even, with few exceptions, the acutest and best trained — 
to prepare the figures for their own speeches. No mat- 
ter how clear their conception of the positions they 
wished to present, few of them could readily and con- 
fidently resort to the government ptublications at hand 
for the statistical materials with which to illustrate and 
enforce their views; and the gratitude with which they 
would accept and acknowledge some trifling assistance 
from a well-trained clerk was almost ludicrous. I do 
not intend any disparagement by this statement. Sta- 
tistics have a language of their own, and he who would 
use them must first learn that language; and this is as 
yet taught scarcely anywhere. 

A striking example of the liability to mistakes which 
constantly besets the compilation of statistical tables was 
afforded in a book published, some years ago, under the 
title, " The Statistics of the United States." The plan 
of the work was a good one; such a book was needed; but 



298 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

the author evidently had not had the training requisite 
safely to carry out his scheme without falling into the 
gravest errors. For instance, the work undertook to 
present the expenditures of the United States for each 
year since the formation of the government. The 
figures used were taken directly from the finance reports 
of the Treasury Department, and were hence of the 
highest oflBcial authority. Unfortunately, however, 
the compiler went for this purpose to the column of 
" Gross Expenditures," and transferred the figures he 
found there into his table. The result was that for some 
years he was out of the way by several hundreds of 
millions of dollars, since during these years the Treasury 
issued large loans to pay off other loans contracted dur- 
ing the war at high rates of interest. Thus, for 1868 
this writer gave the expenditures of the government as 
$1,093,079,655, — a very expensive government indeed 
for a time of profound peace ! The facts were as follows : 
The " net ordinary expenditures " of the government 
that year were $202,947,734; there was paid from the 
Treasury, in bond premiums, $10,813,349; and, as 
interest on the national debt, $143,781,592; making the 
total expenditures of the government on these accounts, 
$357,542,675. In addition, the Treasury redeemed 
bonds to the amount of $735,536,980; and this, mainly, 
out of the proceeds of fresh loans, at lower rates of 
interest. All this vast sum, more than twice the actual 
expenditures of the government, even after including 
bond premiums and the current interest on the public 



THE STUDY OF STATISTICS. 299 

debt, was embraced in the financial statement of the last 
year of Mr. Johnson's administration. This mistake 
was committed in connection with each successive ad- 
ministration, from Washington's down. 

It is needless to say that blunders of such a magni- 
tude completely destroyed the prestige of the book, and 
that, although it was intended to be issued from time to 
time, with the facts and figures brought down to date, it 
was never heard of again. 

Another example of statistics rendered actually delu- 
sive by the neglect of elementary considerations is found 
in a recent work on State and Municipal Taxation, a 
book which, in many of its views and suggestions, makes 
a valuable contribution to economic literature, but is, 
statistically, very faulty. Thus, in a " comparative 
table " showing the " principal receipts, total receipts, 
and total expenditures " of certain leading cities, New 
York is put down for $73,309,884 of total receipts, in 
1886, and for $71,750,743 of total expenditures. N'ow 
the fact is, that nearly twenty millions alike of the re- 
ceipts and of the expenditures represent nothing but 
temporary loans, contracted and paid during the year. 
City taxes come in mainly during a brief period. In 
order to prevent the necessity of keeping a vast sum of 
money in the treasury for months together, the govern- 
ment properly borrows in the " dry season," and liqui- 
dates its obligations when the taxes set in like a flood. 
Yet, in the work referred to, this fact was allowed to 
swell the expenditures of the city more than one-third. 



300 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

Had the city treasurer found it expedient to borrow ten 
millions more for one, two, or three months, this would 
have carried the " expenditures " of i^ew York up to 
eighty-one millions! 

Instruction directly intended to qualify a student to 
use statistics, and to compile tables with ease, confidence, 
and accuracy, is now given at Harvard University, Co- 
lumbia College, the Institute of Technology, and prob- 
ably elsewhere. The pupil is taught to look up the data 
relating to a given subject, as these may be found scat- 
tered through long series of official reports; to bring the 
various statements together; to examine them as to their 
proper comparability ; to test their accuracy by all means 
which may be available; and to put them together into 
tables. The student is further taught to work out the 
percentages involved and to set one class of facts into 
relation with others; as, for example, to compute the 
ratio of valuation, or of expenditure, or of mortality, to 
each million or each thousand of the population con- 
cerned; and, finally, to make diagrams or charts, which 
shall exhibit graphically the several elements, taken in 
their due proportions, as ascertained by the investiga- 
tion. In none of the higher institutions, however, is 
this branch of study carried as far as it ought to be ; nor 
are all the methods of instruction in this department yet 
worked out to their gi*eatest efficiency. Still, the good 
work has been well begun; and the constantly growing 
appreciation of the ability to compile and to use statistics 
for the purposes of political, economic, and social dis- 



THE STUDY OF STATISTICS. 301 

cussion cannot fail to cause a rapid development of this 
feature of the college course. The American Statis- 
tical Association, under the able secretaryship of Pro- 
fessor Davis R. Dewey, is doing much to promote this 
study; and it is the desire of its officers that its Journal 
may become to a considerable extent at once the organ 
of communication, of suggestion, and of friendly criti- 
cism among the working statisticians of the country, and 
the repository of the best essays in this line from our 
leading colleges and universities; affording, in the latter 
way, a great impulse to the study of statistics in connec- 
tion with the academic pursuit of history and economics. 
The scope of this paper does not include a discussion 
of the subjects and the order of studies designed to give 
the investigator the power to discover statistically the 
laws which govern the action of social and economic 
forces. Such a course would necessarily be long and 
severe. For the best results it should embrace the 
tighest mathematics of our American colleges, and 
should be largely directed to the development of the bio- 
logical sense. The number of those who, otherwise than 
as a means of mental training, would have occasion to 
undertake such a course, would necessarily be small. 
There is reason to wish that all citizens, from the highest 
to the lowest, might undergo so much of training in sta- 
tistics as would enable them to detect the errors lurking 
in quantitative statements regarding social and economic 
matters which may be addressed to them as voters or as 
critics of public policies. Comparatively few of these. 



302 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

however, would ever have occasion to prepare such state- 
ments for themselves, and would thus have use for the 
special faculty which is required for the compilation of 
statistical tables and diagrams. Far smaller still will be 
the numbers of those whose natural endowments and 
whose chosen pursuits would justify the long and labori- 
ous training, the patient practice, and the acquisition of 
the large and various learning, which alone can qualify 
the student of history, of sociology, or of political 
economy confidently and surely to educe from thou- 
sands of pages closely packed with figures some hitherto 
unsuspected law of human life or conduct. 



NORMAL TRAINING IN WOMEN'S 

COLLEGES 

1892 



Fbom thk Educational Review, Notember, 1892. 



NOEMAL TEAINING IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 

It is now a little more than twenty-five years since a 
college for women was founded in the United States/ 
From the first the new enterprise attained a high degree 
of success, whether as measured by popular appreciation 
or as tested by the strictest scrutiny of its results ; and in 
the face of the fast-increasing demands of the older col- 
leges, and in spite of skepticism and incredulity, the edu- 
cational system of the United States has been rapidly 
and strongly developed along the line thus taken. 
Without considering the coeducational institutions at 
the West and South, we already have a number of col- 
leges for women alone, well endowed and equipped, 
largely attended and of excellent repute for scholarship. 
The American people may thus be said to have had a 
quarter-century's experience, upon a pretty wide scale, 
of these educational advantages. The length of that 
period has afforded opportunity for ascertaining what- 
ever defects and limitations may have existed in this type 
of institution as first founded ; and its close offers an ap- 
propriate occasion for inquiring whether important 
alterations require to be made, in the interest of the 
pupils especially concerned, or in the interest of the gen- 
eral community. 

' Vassar College, founded in 1861 ; opened in 1865. — Ed, 

305 



306 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

Since the first colleges for women were founded, great 
changes, economic and social, peculiarly affecting the 
condition of women, have taken place in the life of our 
people. Do these changes require any considerable 
alteration in the general scheme of education for the 
young women of America — any alteration, that is, 
farther than would be involved in the natural develop- 
ment of that scheme according to its original idea, and in 
the general, gradual movement of college discipline and 
training for students of either sex indifferently? 
Changes have, indeed, been seen to be required, and 
some of them have been more or less rapidly effected in 
colleges for women and in colleges for men ; but has any 
reason for change appeared which peculiarly affects the 
former class? 

And, first, what was the scheme of education adopted 
in the several institutions of this kind which came into 
existence during the period in question? Speaking gen- 
erally, it was nearly identical with that which had long 
been tried and approved in the education of young men. 
So far is this true that it has become a familiar claim, 
on the part of the more ambitious of the new colleges, 
that their curriculum is in all respects coextensive and 
equally difficult with that of men's colleges. 

I shall not pause to inquire whether this object was in 
itself desirable; whether young women should be called 
upon to do in four years all that young men may be re- 
quired to do in the same time ; whether exceptional con- 
sideration be not due to the greater delicacy, sensitive- 



NORMAL TRAINING IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 307 

ness, and liability to nervous derangement on the part 
of the female sex. I shall not even stop to ask whether 
this claim was ever, anwhere, made good except in the 
case of highly selected bodies of young women; or 
whether, through conscious or unconscious relaxations 
of the nominal requirements, the work exacted, in even 
the most advanced of the women's colleges, has not, in 
fact, mercifully fallen somewhat below a full equivalent 
of that done in the other class of institutions. I desire 
here only to note the fact of such a claim having been 
freely and widely made, as corroborating the statement 
that, in general, the scheme of education for women 
adopted twenty-five or twenty years ago, was substan- 
tially the same as had been approved for the training of 
young men. 

One exception, indeed, requires to be taken to the 
assertion that the curriculum of the new institutions was 
meant to be, alike in substance and in form, identical 
with the traditional curriculum of the American college. 
This exception relates to the studies and exercises having 
reference to the preparation of the student for public 
speaking. But even this modification was in a direc- 
tion already clearly indicated among the men's colleges 
themselves by the gradual decay and disuse of declama- 
tion and debate. This has steadily gone forward since 
that time, until now, in the most advanced of the older 
institutions, preparation for public speaking, and even 
for public writing, is given but little attention. So we 
may fairly say that, in the most important respect of 



308 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

their original difference, the colleges for men have come 
to the colleges for women. 

The changes which I have referred to as occur- 
ring peculiarly to affect the condition of women, 
within the period since these colleges were founded, 
are: 

First, the greater call for women to interest them- 
selves in public affairs; and 

Secondly, the procrastination of marriage and the re- 
striction of the marrying class, throwing upon women, 
in a degree before unknown, the necessity of independ- 
ent self-support. 

In speaking of the greater call for women to take part 
in public affairs, I have no reference to the current agi- 
tation for female suffrage. Altogether irrespective of 
this is the peremptory demand upon the educated mem- 
bers of that sex, in these later days, to concern them- 
selves with matters once wholly managed by men. In 
addition to the rapidly growing freedom with which 
women are admitted to school boards and committees, 
and to a participation in the management of public insti- 
tutions of charity and beneficence, one has only to look 
about him, in his own town or city, and see what the 
educated women of the community are doing; one has, 
indeed, only to peer (by permission, of course) into the 
engagement book of his wife, sister, or daughter, to get 
a somewhat startling view of the enlarged activity of the 
woman of to-day, making a demand upon her, if those 
duties are to be well performed, for more training and 



NORMAL TRAINING IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 309 

an ampler equipment upon that side than was required, 
or was possible, a quarter of a century ago. 

But this want has not been left thus long to be sup- 
plied. Men's colleges and women's colleges together 
have been applying themselves, during the whole of the 
period in question, to do that which will largely meet 
this need of the times. Not, indeed, that the colleges, 
professedly, or perhaps even consciously, have made any 
considerable changes in their curriclum in the interest of 
a better preparation of either women or men for public 
affairs. The changes in this direction have been made 
because the tendency in education, upon purely educa- 
tional grounds, has, of recent years, set strongly and 
steadily towards those studies and exercises which 
peculiarly qualify the student for social and political 
duties. 

The assertion that the changes in the curriculum of 
the American college which have so fortunately met the 
freshly developed want in education on woman's side, 
have not been due to such a purpose, or even to an un- 
conscious recognition of the new need, may perhaps be 
questioned; but I believe it to be true. Even in men's 
colleges the rapid extension during the past twenty 
years, — one might almost say the first introduction within 
that period,— of history, economics, and statistics, has not 
come from the desire on the part of teachers and admin- 
istrators to fit their pupils better for public duties. It 
has taken place because history, economics, and statistics 
had, in the course of educational development, become 



310 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

studies which would crowd themselves into the colleges, 
whether or no; which could no longer be kept out; 
which made an imperative demand for room in every 
institution devoted to the liberal arts. Before that 
time those studies, as known in the United States, had 
not their developed methods — had not their qualified 
teachers. Those methods were not developed, those 
teachers were not trained, to fit either American women 
or American men for the social and political life of their 
country. In fact, those methods were not developed, 
those teachers were not trained, here in America at all. 
It was abroad, in Germany, where those studies were 
pursued as a necessary part of a great and comprehensive 
scheme of intellectual cultivation, that this was done. 

History, economics, and statistics become college 
studies in America, not because the want of them was 
consciously felt more than at any previous time in our 
history, not at all because the need of them had then first 
specially appeared in the education of women, but be- 
cause those studies had, under altogether other and for- 
eign impulses, assumed an educational character which 
made it impossible to keep them out of any institution 
assuming to offer a liberal training, and because a host 
of young Americans, taught in the universities of Ger- 
many, were returning to their native land as the mis- 
sionaries of the new cult. 

But whether we adopt or reject this view of the cause 
of the rapid rise and growth of the historical and politi- 
cal sciences in our institutions of learning generally, it 



NORMAL TRAINING IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 311 

certainly cannot be claimed that the result was in any 
degree due to the newly developed want of women's col- 
leges. Nevertheless, that want, thus suddenly occur- 
ring, has been most fortunately supplied. Although 
history, economics, and statistics first came into America 
through the colleges for men, they rapidly made their 
way into the women's colleges, so that now, in the most 
advanced of these, the new studies are cultivated almost 
as assiduously as in the institutions for the other sex; 
and the catalogues of women's colleges show an increas- 
ing disposition towards the further recognition of the 
historical and political sciences as instruments of liberal 
culture. 

I think we may conclude, then, that the change upon, 
what we may call the political side, in the condition of 
American women, does not call for any important altera- 
tion of the curriculum, other than has been involved, to 
use my own phrase, " in the natural development of the 
scheme according to its original idea, or in the general 
gradual development of college discipline and training 
for the students of either sex indifferently." The re- 
quired modification has, in fact, already taken place, not 
at all with reference to the special needs of American 
women, but under the general educational impulse of 
the age. 

It is a more serious and difficult question, whether the 
other change which has been indicated as affecting the 
condition of women, through the procrastination of mar- 
riage and the restriction of the marrying class, especially 



312 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

among the educated and cultivated portion of the com- 
munity, throwing upon women, in a degree never before 
known, the necessity of independent self-support, does 
not call for extensive modifications of the curriculum 
as established when these colleges were instituted. The 
reasonable expectations, the usual prospects for life with 
which young women went to college when that oppor- 
tunity was first offered them, were widely different from 
what they now are, ]^ot only is the time of marriage 
long procrastinated, not only is the proportion of celi- 
bates increasing throughout the total population, but 
among the educated and cultivated classes these ten- 
dencies are felt with a force which is rapidly changing 
our social ideas in many particulars, and is fast bringing 
in new economic conditions. 

Here again, however, a modification of the college 
curriculum, under the general educational influence of 
the age, and not at all for the purpose of meeting the 
newly developed need in woman's training, has actually, 
to a considerable extent, taken place. Chemistry and 
physics have become important studies at the leading 
colleges for men during the past ten or fifteen years, 
not because it was expected that the students would use 
these sciences professionally, but because these sciences 
had assumed an importance, educationally, which would 
not allow them to be longer kept out, or, if admitted, to 
be confined to the petty proportions of thirty years ago. 
For the same reason, and no other, chemistry and 
physics have extended themselves rapidly to women's 



NORMAL TRAINING IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 313 

colleges, and are every year asserting themselves more 
and more in the curriculum. Here again we have a 
development of women's colleges which was eminently 
opportune, although it took place without reference to 
the changes in the condition of women which made such 
a modification of the traditional courses peculiarly con- 
ducive to the training of women for independent mainte- 
nance. 

The question I have now to ask is: Whether any 
change not in the nature of a development of the origi- 
nal scheme of women's colleges and not shared by the 
colleges for men, requires to be brought about, in view 
of the increasing need which women have, in these days, 
for self-support. The subject is one regarding which 
something might doubtless be said upon both sides; yet 
for myself I strongly hold to the opinion that, with a 
single important exception to be hereafter noted, those 
who are charged with the administration of the higher 
institutions of learning for women should continue to 
interest themselves solely in the question: What studies 
and exercises will conduce most to sound mental dis- 
cipline, to general culture, and to the acquisition of a 
considerable body of correct information upon sub- 
jects of political, social, and domestic importance? not 
troubling themselves at all to give their pupils industrial 
arts, or to prepare them in any way specially and tech- 
nically to enter " the market for labor." I heartily be- 
lieve that, with the single possible exception to be noted, 
the studies and exercises prescribed for young women, 



314 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

in their college courses, should be purely educational; 
and that, at least, the time has not yet come when the 
conductors of these institutions are called upon to ask 
what studies and exercises will best fit young women for 
any special line of remunerative work. 

My reasons for believing that the colleges for women 
should, at least in the present and the immediate future, 
confine themselves to the proper college function of 
mental discipline and mental development, are as 
follows : 

First: Because the presumption is still happily in 
favor of the ultimate devotion of woman's powers and 
faculties to domestic life and duties, in which general 
training will count for much, and special training for 
but little. 

Secondly : Because the occupations of a business char- 
acter which are as yet freely opened to that sex are gen- 
erally those in which woman's tact, dexterity, and quick- 
ness of apprehension tvill enable her most readily to dis- 
pense with previous special or technical preparation, and 
in which, consequently, general training will tell to the 
utmost. 

Thirdly: For the comparatively few women who 
have a strong " call " to technical professions of a 
severely scientific character, opportunities are already 
provided at several institutions of high grade which ad- 
mit the members of both sexes, without discrimination, 

Fourtlily: For certain of the higher professions, if I 
may venture to call them so, in which women take a part 



NORMAL TRAINING IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 315 

equal, if not superior, to that taken by men, opportuni- 
ties for training are now afforded in special schools, 
which exist in great number and in great variety, often 
fully equipped and well administered. To students, for 
example, of music, drawing, painting, and, under my 
breath be it spoken, of the drama, this country presents 
advantages as great as could reasonably be expected in a 
civilization as new as ours. If more is to be looked for, 
it must be through the progressive improvement of these 
special native schools or through foreign residence and 
study. 

I now come to the one important exception, already 
several times intimated, which, in my opinion, requires 
to be made to the principle that the colleges for women 
should still remain, as they have been in the past, non- 
professional, wholly educational. That exception re- 
lates to the training of teachers. Already the leading 
colleges and universities for men are turning their atten- 
tion to this urgent need of the times and are establishing 
chairs of pedagogy for the instruction of their under- 
graduates in the theory and history of teaching. I be- 
lieve that the colleges for women should go still further 
in this direction, so that each one of them shall become, 
in a high sense, a normal school. 

The profession of the teacher is not only of vital im- 
portance to the community, it is that one of all the larger 
professions which is mainly relinquished, by general 
consent, to women. To fill the vacancies in the ranks 
of the teaching profession, occasioned by all causes, and 



316 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

to supply the additional assistants required by the 
growth of the country, at least twenty thousand young 
women should each year present themselves as qualified 
to undertake these onerous and responsible duties. To 
meet this tremendous demand, the so-called normal 
schools are striving with the best of their powers; but 
they cannot do all that is required, while much that 
they do is less than well done. Held down, as they are, 
by the presence of large numbers of pupils who are not 
even graduates of high schools and obliged to devote no 
small part of the time and strength of their staff to ele- 
mentary instruction, not in the teaching art, but in the 
subject-matter of what is to be taught, these schools can- 
not do themselves or their better pupils justice; and 
many of those whom they graduate are accepted by 
school boards only because the supply is so painfully 
inadequate. The number of teachers actively de- 
manded for giving instruction in the higher branches of 
learning in the secondary schools of the country, and for 
bringing inspiration into the more fortunately circum- 
stanced grammar schools, would take up every year more 
than all the graduates of all our women's colleges. 

I offer, then, this plea for normal instruction and 
training in all colleges for women. The need of the 
countiy is so urgent that some sacrifice of the strictly 
educational character of these institutions might prop- 
erly be submitted to, were that necessary, in order to 
secure a higher professional result in a department of 
public service so peculiarly woman's own and so vitally 



NORMAL TRAINING IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 317 

important to the welfare of the people. But, in fact, 
I do not believe that the introduction of the studies and 
exercises proper to this object would impair — on the con- 
trary, I believe it would greatly improve and highly 
exalt, the true educational work of these institutions. 

I would not have the colleges for women teach the 
mere arts of the pedagogue, or undertake to anticipate 
the necessary work of experience. But I would have 
the history and the philosophy of education made prime 
subjects of study. I would have the psychology of 
teaching taught. I would have the mind, in its powers 
of perception, observation, reflection, and expression 
studied as objectively and as scientifically as specimens 
in natural history are studied in the classroom and the 
laboratory. The order of development of the human 
faculties, the child's way of observing, the child's way 
of thinking when untaught and untrained, the ways in 
which the child may be interested and drawn out of him- 
seK — these should be the matter of eager, interested in- 
vestigation. Surely, they are as well worthy to be the 
subjects of study as are the processes of vegetable or 
animal growth, as the order in which the leaves are set 
upon the stem, or as the mechanism of the human body. 

The art of the teacher, the art of simple exposition 
and familiar illustration, the art of putting questions 
and stimulating thought — this art should be both 
studied and practiced, practiced and studied, year by 
year. I would have the pupils frequently called to 
assume, for a brief space, the responsibilities of instruc- 



318 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

tion. I would have classes formed to investigate prob- 
lems in education, starting questions, stating proposi- 
tions, adducing facts, discussing principles, consulting 
authorities, answering objections, under the guidance of 
teachers who shall have their own minds directed upon 
the end of training their scholars not merely to com- 
unicate thought, but to create it. 

Does it seem that the dedication to such uses of a 
portion of the time at the command of the faculty would, 
in the result, interfere with the educational character 
of the curriculum? Would not the remainder of the 
four years' course be worth, even for mere acquisition 
alone, as much as the whole formerly was? I surely 
think so. I believe that what has been suggested is the 
very thing most needed to give its best effect to the 
studies in classics, philosophy, mathematics, natural 
science, history, and politics, which make up the tradi- 
tional courses of our colleges. 

That such a training would fit the graduates of 
women's colleges to take up the work of the teacher 
with great advantage, no one will question. They 
might at first be found to be, in mere smartness, glib- 
ness, self-confidence, and ease of bearing, behind the 
graduates of the typical normal school; but their 
broader scholarship and higher culture would qualify 
them, in a far greater degree, to reap the fruits of 
experience, and they could not fail, after a brief period 
of apprenticeship, to take their place among the most 
useful members of the profession. 



NORMAL TRAINING IN WOMEN'S COLLEGES. 319 

But what of those who are destined not to enter the 
ranks of that profession, but are to find their life's work 
at home, in the domestic circle? N^eed the question be 
asked? Could any nobler preparation for the duties 
of wife and mother be devised than that which I have 
thus outlined? Surely, this part of the college training 
would never run to waste. The Latin and Greek might 
be unused and soon forgotten ; but the hearts and minds 
of the next generation would be inexpressibly benefited 
by the gi-acious fruits of studies and exercises such as 
these. 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND 
HIGHER EDUCATION 

1894 



A Discussion op the Question : How Mat Closer 
Articulation between the Secondary Schools and 
Higher Institutions be Secured ? at the Ninth An- 
nual Meeting of the New England Association of 
Colleges and Preparatory Schools, October 12, 1894. 
From the School Review, December, 1894. 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND HIGHER 
EDUCATION. 

Any part I may take in the deliberations of this meet- 
ing ought to be a grateful one — grateful to me, because, 
as a representative of scientific and technical schools, I 
have only to give assent to the fundamental propositions 
of Dr. Huling; ^ gTateful to you, because my simple con- 
tribution will not long detain you. 

So far as I am aware, there can be no occasion for 
the scientific and technical schools of this country to 
object to any of Dr. Huling's proposals. Inasmuch as 
those schools to-day require no more than is provided 
for in at least one of the courses offered by the Com- 
mittee of Ten," they can possibly have no adverse inter- 
est. The report does not call upon us to make any con- 
cessions whatsoever. Any scientific school in the land 
would be quite content to have its students bring with 
them as much as is embraced in the course to which I 
refer. Therefore, so far as I am to speak for the scien- 
tific and technical schools, there can be no reason for 
doubt or hesitation in giving support to the propositions 
of the Committee. Indeed, so far as my constituency 

' The question under discussion had been presented by Dr. Ray 
Greene Huling, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. — Ed. 

5 In its valuable report (1893) to the National Educational Associa- 
tion. — Ed. 



324 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

is concerned, the changes proposed by the Committee 
would be all clear gain. 

This completes all I have to offer as a representative 
of scientific and technical schools; but, if I might ven- 
ture to refer for a moment to the position of the classical 
colleges, I must confess that I have a great deal of sym- 
pathy with that view of the English high school which 
is presented in the extract quoted by Dr. Huling. I 
believe in the free development of the high school in 
this country, without constraint from the outside, and 
without any concession to either the colleges or the 
technical schools. I believe that the high schools should 
not be asked to do anything more than what would be 
for their own best development as schools a great 
majority of whose pupils are to go directly out into 
practical life without further advantages of education. 
I believe that the English high schools were created for 
the benefit of pupils of this class; and that they should 
go steadily forward upon that line, simply asking how 
they can best serve the needs of this portion of the com- 
munity, making no surrender and no concessions to the 
wishes or the interests of the colleges, on the one hand, 
or of the scientific and technical schools on the other. 
The colleges have, and for a long time have had, com- 
plete control of the endowed academies and the public 
Latin schools. If the colleges want any more than this 
for their own purposes, let them provide it. If, again, 
the scientific schools need any more or any different 
preparation from that which the high schools would 



SECOND AR T SCHOOLS AND HIGHER ED UCA TION. 325 

give, from their own point of view and for their own 
proper purposes, then let the scientific and technical 
schools provide it for themselves. The English high 
school has its own definite, important work to do in the 
American system of education, which is to give the best 
possible courses of instruction to young people, between 
fourteen or fifteen and eighteen or nineteen years of 
age, who are not able to carry their studies on into the 
college or into the scientific or technical school. This 
is the proper work of the English high schools ; and those 
who are charged with the conduct of such schools should 
allow nothing to divert them from that object. If the 
instruction given by the English high school, according 
to its own point of view, wich reference to its own pur- 
poses, does not precisely fit its graduates for the classical 
college, then I say the college must come to the high, 
school, and not the high school to the college. The 
desired adjustment must come through concession from 
the colleges, and not by surrender on the part of high 
schools. 

The foregoing remarks might seem from their tone to 
be antagonistic to the report of the Committee of Ten 
and to the propositions of Dr. Huling; but, in fact, they 
are not so intended. The colleges are now doing just 
this very thing. They are coming to the English high 
school, and they are coming fast, climbing over the 
fences and breaking through the hedges to get as quickly 
as possible upon the ground of an education which omits 
the once universal requirement of Latin and Greek for 



326 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

all college students and through practically the whole 
college course. The surrender has been on the part of 
the colleges and not on the part of the high schools; and 
in the readjustments which will properly follow that 
surrender the needs and the capabilities of high schools 
should be kept carefully in mind, rather than the needs 
and the convenience of the colleges. 

Having long and strongly held this view of the mis- 
sion of the English high school in our educational 
economy, I would not have those who control these 
schools give up one jot or tittle of what is for the good 
of the high schools themselves, according to their orig- 
inal idea, or divert in any degree the instruction given in 
such schools from the direction which will best serve 
those who are to end their school life at that point. But 
it does not seem to me that the report of the Committee 
of Ten and the suggestions and propositions of Dr. Hu- 
ling ask anything of the high schools other than is for 
their own good, according to their original purposes. On 
the contrary, it appears to me that the programmes of the 
Committee of Ten are such that they might have been 
drawn up solely for the good of the English high schools 
themselves, and not at all with reference to the needs 
of colleges and scientific schools. I would not say that, 
in the point of the amount of work required, those pro- 
grammes may not transcend the present capabilities of 
the less favored schools; but, subject to this caution, I 
think that the most ardent supporter of the traditional 
English high school may cheerfully and cordially accept 



SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 327 

those programmes as of the nature of an enlargement 
and improvement of the high school, in its own interest 
alone. 

Referring for a moment to the question of admission 
to colleges and scientific schools by certificate, which 
was brought up by Dr. Huling, I would say that, in my 
judgment, the general movement in this direction is a 
fortunate one, and is likely to be carried still further to 
the advantage both of the college or scientific school and 
of the preparatory school, whether endowed academy, 
Latin school, or English high school. But it does not 
seem to me that there should be any effort to force this 
matter. The result will be better accomplished in the 
end if it is brought about gradually, and, indeed, by 
piecemeal, here a little and there a little, each individual 
college or scientific school proceeding by negotiation 
with its own special " feeders " and shaping its course 
according to its own particular needs. Indeed, it is 
doubtful whether the system of admission by certificate 
will ever be made universal. It is safe to say that some 
colleges can admit students by certificate from some pre- 
paratory schools. It is perhaps safe to say that some 
colleges could safely admit by certificate from all pre- 
paratory schools. It is possible that all colleges might 
admit by certificate from some preparatory schools. But 
to say that all preparatory colleges could admit students 
by certificate from all preparatory schools, is going a 
great deal further than the results of experience justify. 

Regarding the complaints, cited by Dr. Huling, which 



328 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

impeach the results of examinations for admission to 
college, I would like to say a word. 

It seems to me that an altogether false idea obtains 
respecting the proper significance and effect of these ex- 
aminations. It appears to be a common notion that the 
successful passing of entrance examinations not only 
vests in an applicant the right to enter the school or col- 
lege, but also the right not to have any other applicant, 
who has not passed the examinations, admitted. Hence, 
we have anonymous examinations, the candidates being 
known only by numbers assigned to them individually, 
with a hard-and-fast rule that those who pass the exam- 
inations with a certain degree of success shall be per- 
mitted to enter, and that all who fall short of that point 
shall be rejected. 

It seems to me that this view of the significance and 
effect of examinations is altogether wrong. The prime 
object of holding entrance examinations is to save young 
men from beginning courses in which they would prob- 
ably fail through lack of preparation. The examina- 
tion is primarily and principally, not for the sake of the 
school or college, but for the sake of the applicant; that 
he may not suffer disappointment ; that he may not lose 
his time and money in a futile attempt to carry on 
courses which are beyond his ability. A school or col- 
lege, on its part, would suffer no particular harm by 
having a certain number of ill-prepared students enter 
its first class. It is the students themselves who would 
suffer; and it is for their sake that entrance examinations 



SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 329 

are held. From this point of view, the examinations 
become merely a sieve which rapidly and confidently 
separates the body of applicants into two general classes : 
those who are manifestly well prepared, and those who 
probably are not prepared. But no reason exists why 
there should not be further inquiry and careful con- 
sideration regarding any person who has failed in the 
formal examination, especially one who has passed the 
usual age of admission, as to whether he may not, in 
spite of that, be fairly qualified to begin the studies of 
the school or college. Regarding the great majority of 
those who fail at formal examinations for admission, 
there is, of course, little to be said; the one thing they 
need is to go back to preparatory schools and to do their 
work, or certain portions of it, over again. Among 
those rejected on first trial, however, often are found 
men whose partial failure is due to causes easily ex- 
plained. Justice, not less than kindness, requires that 
such persons should not be compelled to lose a year of 
life, perhaps practically be debarred from a further 
educational career. Certainly, to say that an applicant 
who has been admitted has a right to object to the 
admission of others, is to give the examinations a sig- 
nificance and an effect which are unreasonable. In 
the school with which I am connected, I think 
there has been no year for a long time in which 
the faculty have not, after carefully considering the 
cases of rejected men, where there appeared to be 
reason to believe that the examinations had not proved 



330 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

a fair or a conclusive test, admitted one or more such 
persons. They have never felt themselves precluded 
from dealing with any case upon its own merits. If it 
were found that an applicant, by reason of tempera- 
ment, was always at a disadvantage in examinations; 
that his preparatory school record showed that he did 
better in current daily work than upon review or 
parade ; and especially, if he bore a character for fidelity, 
industry, and persistency, he might be admitted in the 
face of examination marks below the standard. In 
other words, if I may use a technical expression, we have 
always at the Institute of Technology felt entirely at 
liberty, so far as examinations are concerned, to " work 
over the tailings," and to extract and save any valuable 
metal we might find there. 



A VALEDICTORY 



Addressed to the Class of 1887, Massachusetts 
Institutk OB- Technology, upon their Graduation, 
May 31, 1887. 



A VALEDICTORY. 

It is now mj pleasant duty, on behalf of the Corpora- 
tion and Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, to present to you the diplomas of your honorable 
graduation, and to greet you Bachelors of Science. 

What we have said in these testimonials we truly and 
fully mean. All that is here woitten is to be taken with- 
out discount, qualification, forced construction, or aca- 
demic fiction. These diplomas testify to four years of 
hard, patient, self-denying, persistent study and practice, 
week by week, month after month, in science and in 
the application of scientific principles to the arts of life. 
All this is precisely true in the case of each and every 
one of you. 

And on behalf of your teachers, I gladly bear witness 
to the cheerfulness, courage, and zeal with which you 
have met the exacting requirements of our curriculum; 
the fidelity and high sense of honor and duty with which 
you have borne yourselves through these trying years 
of laborious study. Those qualities have won the re- 
spect and affection of your instructors here ; they cannot 
fail to secure recognition and to command confidence in 
the new lives on which you are entering to-day. 

Fortunate are they who, in opening a new chapter of 
life, are not required to do what is implied in that omi- 

333 



334 COLLEGE PROBLEMS. 

nous phrase, " turning over a new leaf." You are not 
now called upon to close a career of dissipation, or idle- 
ness, or frivolity, or triviality, with good resolutions of 
amendment and reformation for the future. Your 
friends and teachers are not counting the chances that 
the closer contemplation of life's responsibilities, or per- 
haps the actual pressure of its burdens, will sober your 
minds, give you a serious sense of duty, and inspire you 
for the first time with a strong and controlling purpose. 
All this has already been done in your case: else you 
would not now be here. 

I would not speak to you as if your characters were 
altogether formed, your education completed, or the last 
of the perils that beset life happily passed. Much, very 
much, remains; but it is not by turning around in your 
course, it is by following on as you have so well begun, 
that you are to pursue your voyage and reach the haven 
of your hopes and rightful ambitions. 

It is always a long and weary way which involves the 
retracing of steps that have gone in the wrong direction, 
or the making up of time that has been wasted; and I 
cannot sufficiently congratulate you that you have taken 
the morning of life, while the heart is buoyant within, 
the limbs stout and active, while the air around is fresh 
and fragrant, and the sun is yet low in the heavens, to 
make so strong and stalwart a beginning of your journey. 
I cannot believe that, as you pause on this eminence, 
here on your graduation day, and look back and down 
upon the camps of those who have not yet girded them- 



A VALEDICTORY. 335 

selves for the march, but are still resting in the com- 
fortable belief that it will do as well to begin life in 
earnest at twenty-one or twenty-five, you are at all dis- 
posed to regret your own early start and the manful 
exertions to which you have given the dewy hours of 
morning. 

My friends, the point toward which all your studies 
and exercises have been directed these long years is at 
length reached ; the hour has come for you to say good- 
by to each other and to your teachers, and with brave 
and hopeful hearts to step over the threshold of the 
school out into the wide world of action. 



INDEX. 



Academy, The, reprint from, 234 

Adams, C. K., quoted, 289 

Admission, by certiticate, 327; 
to colleges, 325; to schools of 
technology, 13; examinations, 
modifications in, 87; examina- 
tions, purpose of, 328 

Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 
Colleges of, 3; congressional 
action concerning, 90 

Algebra, fallacies regarding its 
teaching, 132 

American Institute of Instruc- 
tion, address before, 196 

American Social Science Associa- 
tion, address before, 124 

American Statistical Association, 
301 

Amherst College, pioneer in 
gymnastics, 271 

Apprentice-system, 158n 

Arithmetic, Boston School Com- 
mittee's rules regarding, 209, 
235; confused with logic, 222, 
241, 248-254; its difficulty 
shown, 226; home lessons in, 
236-240; inadequacy of school 
training in, 220, 246; impor- 
tance of simplifying, 209, 217, 
242; occupies too much time, 
137n, 215, 240; opinions of 
psychologists regarding, 213, 
227; related to algebra, 132; 
true and false, compared, 210, 
220; its value in mental cul- 
ture, 213, 244; waste of time in 
study of, 223n, 239 

Art and athletics, 284 

Arts, useful, need of training in, 
84 

Associated Charities of Boston, 
address before, 152, 154 

Athletics, art and, 284; advan- 
tages and disadvantages, 274- 
283; distinguished from gym- 



nastics, 273; effect upon com- 
munity, 277; organized cheer- 
ing in, 280; qualities fostered 
by, 278; recent growth of, 
271; and religion, 264; spe- 
cialization in, 273; stimulates 
patriotism, 279; and trans- 
cendentalism, 262; at West 
Point, 279; at Yale, 282 

Atlantic Monthly, reprint from, 
38 

"Atmosphere," in colleges, 49; 
of universities, 68 

Beecher, H. W.,and "Muscular 
Christianity," 267 

Bigelow, E. B., 45; Jacob, 45 

Blake, J. G., quoted, 171n 

Boston School (/Ommittee, ad- 
dress before, 208, 223n; rules 
regarding arithmetic, 209, 235 

Bowditch, J. I., 45 

Brockway, Supt., of Elmira Re- 
formatory, 267 

Brush, G. J., 42 

Carpentry and wood-turning, 184 
Certificate, admission by, 327 
Chandler Scientific School, 126 
Charity and public-schools, 154 
Cheering, in athletics, 280 
Chemistry, as a subject for ex- 
amination, 26; in colleges, 312; 
in secondary education, 101 
Chile, the affair with, 270 
Christian Register, The, reprint 

from, 134 
Citv bov, disadvantages of, 160, 

175-179 
Civil War, the, athleticism before, 
260; changes due to, 19, 31n, 
268-270; its effect on educa- 
tion, 88; extraordinary char-, 
acter of, 270; West Point 
graduates in, 30 



337 



338 



INDEX. 



Clark, J. E., quoted, 247 

Clarkson Memorial School of 
Teclmology, address at, 81; 
how established, 108 

Class distiuctions and industrial 
education, 129, 141 

Classical colleges, " atmosphere " 
in, 49; danger of sophistry in, 
23; difficulties of smaller, 45; 
disciplinary studies in, 57; 
diminution of attendance upon 
(1850). 81; electivcs in, 57; 
English teaching in, 111; and 
English high schools, 324; ex- 
aminations in, 24; late entrance 
into, 26; modified entrance 
requirements, 87; relations to 
community, 82; and technolog- 
ical colleges, 21-32, 33n, 93, 111 

Cobden, R., his power in speak- 
ing, 295 

College, athletics question in, 259, 
276; development of modern, 
91; disciplinary studies in, 56; 
faculties and athletics, 281; 
graduates in schools of tech- 
nology, 8; " heroes." 261; his- 
tory and economics in, 289, 
310; life, its charm, 74; rela- 
tions to professional schools, 
62-66; science-study in, 312 

Colleges, of Agriculture and 
Mechanic Arts, 3, 90; for wo- 
men, 305 

Color-blindness, 198 

Columbia University, its course 
in statistics, 300; its law school, 
67; its school of mines. 43, 126 

Columbian Exposition, 6 

"Committee of Ten." its pro- 
gramme, 326; and schools of 
technology, 323 

Confederation of 1781-87, 268 

Cooke. J. P., quoted, 25 

Cooking in public schools, 163, 
169, 191 

Cornell University. 43 

Country life, advantages of, 158, 
175-179 

" Cramming," 24 

Crime and physical condition, 267 

Cyclopedia information, 189 

Dartmouth College, its schools 
of science, 126 



Deafness, often unsuspected, 201 
Dewey, D. R., 301 
Dickinson. J. W., 153, 163 
Discipline in college studies, 56 
Disinterestedness in education, 

13,46 
"Dividend, predetermined," its 

fallacy, 96 
Divinity schools and universities, 

69 
Domestic manufactures, decay 

of, 177 
Drawing, in elementary schools, 

139, 147; discussed by Dr. 

Runkle, 162n, 185 
Drexel Institute, 104 
Dwight, President, 41; Profes- 
sor, 67 

Ear. its education neglected, 120 

Economic studies in colleges, 
289, 310 

Education, through arithmetic, 
209-254; " atmosphere " in, 49, 
68; disinterestedness in, 13, 46; 
engineering, 9; eflect of Civil 
Warupou,88; in English, 111- 
122; a "free hand " in, 105- 
107; importance of, to New 
England, 167; industrial. 125- 
131, 141, 153. 184; tlie kinder- 
garten principle in, 161; leisure 
in, 55-58; liberal, 55-77; in 
morals. 134n ; public, its scope, 
154; through applied science, 
101 

Educational Beview, The, re- 
prints from, 54, 304 

Elective system, the, 56 

Emerson, G. B., 45 

Engineer, character of the, 59 

Engineering education, the prob- 
lem of, 9 

English, the problem of teaching, 
111-122; proticiency in, as re- 
lated to graduation. 122; its 
study in elementary schools, 
213; suggestions regarding 
students', 118-122 

English high school, the, its 
curriculum. 824 

Entrance, by certificate, S27; to 
colleges, 325; to schools of 
technology, 13, 380; require- 
ments, modifications in, 87 



INDEX. 



339 



Ethics, the teaching of, 134n 
Examinations, dangerous tenden- 
cies of, 24; in English univer- 
sities, 24; real scope of en- 
trance, 328 
Executive faculty, not trained 
heretofore, 157 

Faculties, college, their duty in 
matter of English, 121; their 
relation to athletics, 281 

Fairbairn, Dr., quoted, 254 

Fallacies and statistics, 291 

Farm and village life, advan- 
tages of, 158, 175-179 

Flint, C. L., 45 

Francis, J. B., 45 

" Free hand," a, in education, 
105-107 

Gazetteer information, useless- 
ness of, 63, 137, 189 

Geography, a course of study 
quoted, 211; its elaboration in 
modern teaching, 211, 244; ex- 
cess of, in elementary schools, 
137n 

Geometry, fallacies regarding its 
teaching, 132-135 

Germany, debt of our colleges to, 
310 

Girls, manual training for, 191 

Gladstone, VV. E., his power in 
speaking, 295 

Graduates, college, in schools of 
technolou:y, 8; proflcieucy of, 
in English. 122 

Grammar, excess in scliools, 137n 

Grammar .schools, cooking in, 
16;>, 1G9. 191; manual train- 
ing in, 139, 163; metric sys- 
tem in, 217; overwork in, 209; 
and scienee-.stu(ly, 102; sewing 
in, 163. 169, 192 

Greece, art and athletics in, 284 

Gymnastic, the true, of teaching, 
222, 250 

Gymnastics, distinguished from 
athletics. 273; desirability of, 
271, 274: and reliirious be- 
liefs, 264; stimulated by ath- 
letics, 278 

Hall, G. S., opinions on arith- 
metic, 227-229 



Hamilton, Sir "W., on mathemat- 
ics, 213; Lady, anecdote of, 
182 

Ilarvard Graduates' Magazine, 
reprint from, 258 

Harvard University, 7; course 
in statistics, 300; its medical 
school, 70; modified entrance 
requirements in, 87; relations to 
Lawrence Scientific School, 40 

Hawaii, affair in, 270 

Hemenway, Mrs., and cooking 
schools, 193 

High schools, and colleges, 323; 
English, 324; liberal studies 
in, 61; military drill in, 272n; 
modified by new conditions, 
99; proficiency of graduates 
from, 56, 188; should give 
ampler development, 187; 
science-study in, 101 

Hill, F. A., 153n 

Historical studies, development 
of, 289, 309 

Home lessons, their disadvan- 
tages, 236-240 

Howison, G. H., opinions on 
arithmethic, 227, 229 

Huling. R. G., 323-327 

Industrial development, and ap- 
prentice-system, 158n; and 
schools of technology, 19, 88 

Industrial education, defined, 
125; advantages of, to youth, 
142; and class distinctions, 129, 
141; develops slow pupils, 145; 
and labor, 144, 166; in public 
schools, 153; time to be given 
to, 185; a scheme of, 131, 184n 

International Congress of Educa- 
tion, address at, 3 

James, Wm., opinions on arith- 
metic, 227 

Johnston, J. F. W., Notes on 
North America, 81 

Journal of Social Science, reprint 
from, 124 

Kindergarten, the, 161, 162n 

Labor and Capital. Senate Com- 
mittee on, testimony before, 
137. 180 



340 



INDEX. 



Labor, respect for, fostered by 
industrial education, 144, 166 

Language-power, of students, 
compared, 112; should be 
given in schools, 114 

Law schools and universities, 67, 
70 

Lawrence, Abbott, gifts to Har- 
vard, 7, 73 

Lawrence Scientific School, 39, 
72, 88; college graduates in, 8, 
73 

Leisure in education, 55-58 

Liberal education, alleged three 
stages in, 55 

Liberal studies, pursuit of, 55, 
60; in secondary schools, 61; 
in technical schools, 12, 33, 48, 
65, 75-77, 92 

Literary societies, their decay, 
271 

Literature and science com- 
pared, 135 

Logic and arithmetic confused, 
222. 241, 248-254 

Lounsbury, T. R., 49 

Low, Seth, 67 

Macaulay, T. B., quoted, 15 

McGill University, remarks at, 
46n 

Manhood cannot be made by col- 
leges, 76n 

Mann, Horace, quoted, 169 

Manual training, cost in city and 
country compared, 179-182; 
development of, 182; in ele- 
mentary schools, 139, 163; for 
girls, 191; relation to mental 
growth, 197-206; and science- 
study, 164; a test for defects, 
203 

Mass. Institute of Technology, 
42, 126; college graduates in, 
8, 74; course in statistics, 300; 
development of. 90; entrance 
examinations at, 330; estab- 
lishes a mechanic arts course, 
141; founded by W. B. Rogers, 
89; its graduates, 76n; liberal 
studies in, 49, 78; trustees of, 
45 ; a valedictory to its class of 
1887, 331 

Mass. Teachers' Association, ad- 
dress before, 234 



Mathematics, Hamilton on, 213; 

mental culture and, 213. 244; 

teaching of, 132-135, 209-224 
Mechanic arts, colleges of, 3, 90; 

higli schools, 99 
Mechanics, principles of, should 

be taught early, 130, 130 
Medical schools and universities, 

69 
Mental culture and mathematics, 

213. 244 
Metric system as a school study, 

217 
Michigan, University of, 88 
Military drill, 272n 
jVIorality, the teaching of, 134n 
Morrill, Senator, 90 
National Educational Associa- 
tion, addresses before, 3, 174; 

its "Committee of Ten," 323- 

326 
New England, changes in village 

life in, 160, 168; and education, 

167; values in early, 292 
New England Association of 

Colleges and Preparatory 

Schools, address before, 322 
New England colleges, associated 

action regarding entrance. 13; 

loss in numbers about 1850, 

81 
Normal schools, inadequacy of, 

107, 316; manual training in, 

140 

Oratory, high repute of, 31n, 261; 
its decay, 271 

Orthopedic surgery and lan- 
guage teaching compared, 
115, 122 

Overwork in schools, 209 

Page, J. A., quoted, 171n 

Patriotism and athletics, 279 

Penn. Stale College, address at, 
31n 

Phi Beta Kappa oration, 258 

Philbrick, J. D., 45 

Physical culture, desirability of, 
271, 274; effect upon crimi- 
nals, 267; and religious beliefs, 
264; and transcendentalism, 
262; stimulated by athletics, 
278 

Physics, in colleges, 312; ele- 



INDEX. 



341 



ments should be taught early, 
130, 135; in secondary schools, 
101; as a subject for examina- 
tion, 26 

Political ideas, affected by tran- 
scendentalism, 263; modern, 
268 

Political mechanism, value of, 
200 

Population of New England, its 
transformation, 160, 168 

Porter, Noah, opinions on arith- 
metic, 227, 231 

Pratt Institute, 104 

Professional men and technical 
schools, 8 

Professional schools, athletics in, 
283; relations to colleges, 62, 
66 

Professional success, kind to be 
striven for, 11, 75 

Public schools, cooking in, 163, 
169, 191; drawing in, 139, 
147; English in, 213; hostility 
toward, 171; Indnstiial educa- 
tion in, 131, 153, 184n 

Pupils, relation of teachers to, 
27 

Religious beliefs, and physical 
culture, 264; in schools. 134n 

Rensselaer Polytechnic institute, 
43, 87, 126 

Requirements for admission, 13, 
87, 325-328 

Rogers, W. B., founds Mass. 
Institute of Technology, 89; 
Life and Letters of, 90 

Rose Polytechnic Institute, 43 

Runkle, J. D., Industrial Educa- 
tion, 141; ouoted, 158n, 162n, 
185 

Safford, Professor, quoted, 247 
St. Louis Manual Training 

School, 141 
School Revieio, reprint from, 322 
Science, reprint from, 184 
Science-schools compared, 4 
Science-teaching, course of study 
in, 212; in grammar .schools, 
102; growth of, in modern 
schools, 212; compared with 
man\ial training, 164 
Scientific men, high aims of, 47 



Seaver, E. P., quoted, 156n, 162n 
Secondary education, as affected 

by modern life, 99; defective 

teaching of English in, 113; 

and higher education, 323; 

liberal studies in, 61; military 

drill in, 272; small uuuiber 

pursuing, 100 
Sectarianism, 134n 
Self-made men, weakness of, 06 
Sense training, neglect of, 155 
Sewing in schools. 163, 169, 192 
Saaler; N. S.. 39, 72 
Sheffield. J. E., 90 
Sheffield Scientific School, 41, 88, 

126; athletics in, 282; -college 

graduates in, 8, 73; liberal 

studies in. 49; President 

Walker professor in, 41 u; 

relations of, to Yale, 41 
Sibley College, 43 
Snobbishness, 11, 50, 72, 105 
Sophistry, danger of, in colleges, 

23 
Specialization in manufactures, 

160, 177 
Spelling, undue stress upon, 116 
Statistics, congressmen and, 297; 

courses of. in colleges. 300; 

difficulties of, 296; examyjles 

of errors in. 292, 297; public 

liking for, 294; uses of, 291 
Stearns, President, 272 
Stevens Institute of Technology, 

43. 126 
Students, relations of, 10, 45, 72, 

165 
Supply and demand, in relation 

to schools of technology, 20, 

95-98 
Swan. Robert, 170 
Systematic training, advantages 

of, 175 

Teachers, demand for, 315 ; and 
pupils, 27; training of, 107, 
315-319 

Tech, The, reprint from, 33n 

Technological education, charac 
ter of," 23; disinterestedness 
in, 14, 46; nature of, 5-21; 
need of conference regarding, 
4 

Technology, schools of, admis- 
sion to, 13, 330; college gradu- 



342 



INDEX. 



ates in, 8; and "Committee 
of Ten," 323; character of 
studies in, 11, 28, 92; compared 
with classical colleges, 21-32, 
33n, 93, 111; defined, 125; 
development of, 4, 19, 91 ; differ 
from original plans, 7; effect 
upon community, 98; English 
teaching in. 111; expediency 
of estahlishing, 126; and 
industrial growth, 19, 88; 
liberal studies in, 12, 33, 48, 
65, 75-77, 92; nature of, 7-21; 
relation of professional men to, 
8; supply and demand in rela- 
tion to, 20, 95; and trade 
schools, 128; and universities, 
9-39, 43, 68, 71 

Technology Quarterly, The, 
reprints from, 18, 258, 288 

Thayer School of Engineering, 
126 

Trade schools, advantages of, 
129; contrasted with schools 
of technology. 128; defined, 127 

Transcendentalism as affecting 
standards of life, 262, 271; and 
athletics, 262 ; and political 
ideas, 263 

Union College, Pres. Wayland 

at. 86 
United States, the, their better 

international attitude, 269; 

unique conditions in, 83 



Universities, "atmosphere" of, 
68; divinity schools and, 69; 
duty to make scholars, 68; 
governing boards in, 10, 43, 72; 
and law schools, 67, 78 ; and 
schools of technology, 9-39, 
43, 68, 71; snobbishness in, 
11, 50, 72 

University of the State of New 
York, address to, 19 

Vassar College, 305 

Wayland, President, quoted, 
81-84; opinions discussed, 87, 
94 

Webster, Daniel, quoted, 262 

Wells, D. A., his power in speak- 
ing, 295 

West Point, football at, 279; its 
graduates in Civil War, 30 

Whitney, W. D., 49 

Women, colleges for, 305; and 
marriage, 308, 311, 319; and 
normal training, 315-319; in 
public affairs, 308 

Woodward, C. M., 141; quoted, 
166n 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 
126 

Yale University, 74; relations of 
scientific school to, 90; suc- 
cess of, with athletics, 282 



THE END. 



3477 



